Markets
Cryptocurrency TV ads are back on the air as prices rise
Down Angle Icon An icon shaped like a downward angle. Cryptocurrency ads, like this one for Crypto.com, are back on TV. Crypto.com
- Cryptocurrency markets are booming again.
- Now crypto companies advertise on TV, just like they did in the first boom.
- However, it still doesn’t look exactly like the latest cryptocurrency boom. At least not yet.
A sign that we are in a cryptocurrency revival: Cryptocurrency prices are rising again.
Another sign: Crypto firms are advertising on TV again.
If you’ve been watching the NBA Playoffs, you may have noticed this ad, from Crypto.com:
And if you haven’t, the notable items are:
- A general tone in which they hate us because they are not our vainglorious defensive: “They ignored your potential. They scorned your achievements. They mocked your ambition. But it’s not the critics who count. And you know it.”
- A narrative that suggests cryptocurrency investors are as brave, tenacious and strong as UFC fighters.
- Off-camera work by 51-year-old rapper Eminem.
- The pointed re-emphasis of the company’s slogan “fortune favors the brave,” which I last saw in a TV commercial during the 2022 Super Bowl, the event that is now shorthand for cryptocurrency’s invasion of culture popular. The particular one A.Dstarring Matt Damon, was (mostly) erased from the internet, but not before spawning a South Park parodyit’s at Uncertain and carefully worded interview in which Damon explains why he made the commercial (for goodness sake, he says).
Crypto.com is not the only one pushing encryption back to TV. Coinbase, which also bought time during the 2022 Super Bowl, is even back. Grayscale Investments has one, mashed potato. But these are not as aggressive as those of cryptocurrencies: Coinbase brazenly claims that cryptocurrencies make more sense than traditional money, and Grayscale simply says that it is better to buy cryptocurrencies through funds like its own. ETFs rather than buying it yourself.
Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, are good for your feelings, assuming you have the feelings of a young man who thinks the world doesn’t appreciate you and your desire to become mega-rich. That is: you are the perfect target for cryptocurrencies or anything else that allows you to put your money at risk in the hope of a big success. It makes perfect sense to run it side by side ads telling you how fun it would be to bet right on the game you’re watching (unless you’re an NBA player).
That said, the cryptocurrency revival of 2024 still looks more like an echo of the last boom than a replication. I don’t come across random people who want to confidently explain their meme stock strategy like I did a few years ago. And other than Jack Dorsey, I don’t hear anyone claiming that bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency, will rebuild/reorder society – just that the the number could riseso why not get a flyer?
But you never know. Perhaps The onion was rightand we’re experiencing an “exponentially shrinking retro divide,” meaning the early ’20s are now hazy, sepia-toned memories that some of us want to bring back.
This would explain a a few different thingsincluding this: Roaring Kitty, GameStop’s day trading hero, is back, and the same goes for GME stock. It was up 60% on Monday.
To the moon! Still?