As crypto tokens fall, FTX and Crypto.com will run Super Bowl ads, seeking new customers; research shows $112.9M+ has been spent on crypto TV ads since 2020
It's a testing time for crypto exchanges to be making their Super Bowl ad debuts. — Recruiting new users can be simple when prices are skyrocketing.
Context & Ripple Effects
FTX and Crypto.com were using marquee sports advertising to pursue customer growth even as falling token prices made organic retail demand harder to sustain. The strategy quickly became an industry-wide Super Bowl push: Coinbase, FTX, eToro and other crypto apps gained App Store visibility after the game.
The campaign was part of a broader race for mainstream recognition rather than an isolated media buy. Later coverage documented more than $2.4 billion in sports-marketing commitments by major crypto companies, while Crypto.com's World Cup sponsorship was later overshadowed by FTX's collapse.
First-order effects
- FTX and Crypto.com commit high-profile acquisition spending at a moment when declining token prices make new-user recruitment more difficult.
- The Super Bowl placements put the exchanges directly alongside Coinbase and eToro in a concentrated contest for mobile-app downloads and brand attention.
Second-order effects
- Crypto advertisers that do not buy comparable tentpole exposure face a sharper visibility gap after the post-game app-ranking surge among Super Bowl advertisers.
- Sports sponsorship and television become competing channels for exchange marketing budgets, increasing pressure to demonstrate that costly brand campaigns convert into durable users.
Third-order effects
- If exchanges continue to rely on mass-market sports media for legitimacy, customer acquisition increasingly favors firms able to fund national campaigns rather than smaller trading platforms.
- The later pullback in crypto advertising as markets declined suggests that this marketing model is tightly coupled to market cycles, making sponsorship commitments a potential fixed-cost burden during downturns.
The trend: Crypto exchanges are using elite sports media to turn volatile-market attention into mainstream brand legitimacy and app acquisition.