Celebrities have been criticized for hyping crypto without highlighting the risks after this month's sell-off, as Crypto.com and FTX scale back on ad spending
Crypto boosters such as Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow have been criticized for hyping virtual currency without highlighting the risks. Tweets: @katie_robertson , @markmazzettinyt , @slhamlet , @taylorlorenz , @ben_mckenzie , @luxalptraum , @nytimes , @megancgraham , and @annmlipton Tweets: Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson : Excellent @tiffkhsu story on the notable silence now from celebs who were pushing crypto. From the director of Larry David's crypto ad: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Mark Mazzetti / @markmazzettinyt : Here's the director of the Larry David crypto ads:"Unfortunately I don't think we'd have anything to add as we have no idea how cryptocurrency works (even after having it explained to us repeatedly), don't own it, and don't follow its market," he said. “https://www.nytimes.com/... Wagner James Au / @slhamlet : NEW: The Times contacted 10 celebrities who've promoted major crypto projects, asking for an official comment, now that crypto has imploded, hurting countless investors, many of them fans of these figures. Not a single one responded. https://www.nytimes.com/... Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : I'm beginning to think the celebrities don't actually care about us https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ben McKenzie / @ben_mckenzie : There's at least one who's willing to speak his mind. Perhaps others will join? https://www.nytimes.com/... @luxalptraum : Kind of sick how willing these people — who definitely aren't desperate for money — were to put their reputations on the line for a complete and total scam. https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimes : Enthusiasm for crypto from celebrities reached a fever pitch over the past year. Now, as hundreds of billions disappear in a sell-off this month, those boosters have been criticized for hyping virtual currency without highlighting the risks. https://www.nytimes.com/... Meg Graham / @megancgraham : “Unfortunately I don't think we'd have anything to add as we have no idea how cryptocurrency works (even after having it explained to us repeatedly), don't own it, and don't follow its market ... We just set out to make a funny commercial!” Good read from @tiffkhsu https://twitter.com/... Ann Lipton / @annmlipton : Director of the Larry David superbowl crypto ad: “we have no idea how cryptocurrency works (even after having it explained to us repeatedly), don't own it, and don't follow its market” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Crypto promotion by celebrities was a deliberate growth strategy through 2021, when influencers from Kim Kardashian to FaZe Clan and Elon Musk used huge platforms to push altcoins to fans, and exchange ad budgets followed the same logic. By this month's sell-off, which erased hundreds of billions in market value, the strategy inverted: Crypto.com and FTX are cutting ad spending, and the director of the Larry David crypto ad admits he neither owns nor follows crypto.
The criticism has organized opposition, not just mood: Ben McKenzie, who has built a public profile as a crypto skeptic and is writing a book with journalist Jacob Silverman, is among the voices noting the promoters' silence — ten celebrities declined to comment to the New York Times. The illusion of respectability that high-status endorsements lent the sector is exactly what critics now want regulators to act on.
First-order effects
- Crypto.com and FTX lose their cheapest demand-generation channel as ad budgets shrink during the sell-off, while Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and other promoters go silent rather than defend their endorsements.
- The Larry David ad's own director disavowing the product strips the campaign of even behind-the-camera credibility, turning past ads into liabilities rather than assets for the exchanges that ran them.
Second-order effects
- Endorsement economics reprice: exchanges seeking celebrity reach now carry tail risk that the promoter's silence — or worse, litigation — amplifies, a dynamic that later ensnared Madonna, Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady in legal difficulties over crypto promotions.
- Critics like Ben McKenzie gain agenda-setting power, feeding the regulatory pressure argument that crypto bought respectability through celebrity association and that crackdowns should follow.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, celebrity endorsement of financial products moves toward disclosure-and-liability norms closer to securities marketing, with promoters and platforms sharing exposure for undisclosed risk — the reckoning Tom Brady's FTX bet exemplifies in his collision with reality.
- The legitimacy gap widens structurally: as institutional players like Fidelity pursue regulated vehicles such as Bitcoin-linked ETFs while celebrity-driven promotion retreats, credibility migrates from fame to compliance.
The trend: Crypto's celebrity-endorsement era is ending, replaced by a regulatory and legal reckoning in which promoters' silence and exchanges' ad retrenchment mark the shift from hype-driven growth to credibility through compliance.