Crypto was the breakout star of this year’s Super Bowl with attention-grabbing ads from companies, such as Coinbase Global, FTX Trading and Crypto.com. But not everyone was a fan.
Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown at a hearing Tuesday condemned the promotions, saying they failed to warn investors of the potential risks of putting money into the white-hot asset class. “The ads left a few things out,” he said.
The companies didn’t mention that investors could “lose big” as a result of wide price swings, that consumers may fall victim to fraud or theft, or that the market currently isn’t subject to the same level of regulatory oversight as other areas, said Brown, a Democratic senator from Ohio.
The Super Bowl is one of the hottest venues for companies trying to tout their products, with commercials during this year’s game costing as much as $7 million for 30 seconds. Crypto firms took advantage of the national spotlight with star-studded ads
Brown isn’t the first to raise concern about these types of promotions. Other countries have taken steps to tighten the rules around crypto advertising, which they’ve said can be misleading — a U.K. watchdog
Despite the media attention gained by the crypto Super Bowl ads, research firm Apptopia found that the commercials didn’t
“The fact that these companies felt the need to advertise at all is a bit of a giveaway about one of their major claims,” Brown said. “If this were actually meant to be used as a currency, why would you need to buy ads?” he said, noting that the Federal Reserve doesn’t buy multimillion-dollar commercial spots to tout the U.S. dollar.
He said the ad blitz reminded him of the 2000 Super Bowl, which was dominated by commercials from web-based startups at the height of the dot-com bubble. “We need to look beyond the unproven promises, protect Americans and our entire financial system,” he said.
