Crypto companies are betting that sports advertising will help them go mainstream on Sunday's Super Bowl and a $700 million agreement last year to rename the Staples Center in Los Angeles as the Crypto.com Arena.
In a bid to broaden its user base, the privately owned Singapore corporation ran a fable Super Bowl campaign with Budweiser, GM, and Pringles, which is little known a year ago.
Other cryptocurrency platforms FTX, Bitbuy, and eToro have also run Super Bowl advertisements. However, the game was just the latest publicity push from Crypto.com.
Last year, Crypto.com Arena hosted the Super Bowl Music Fest in 20 countries. The Philadelphia 76ers, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Formula One Racing.
Crypto.com, a six-year-old company based in the United States, is a global group of entities which operate under the name Foris DAX. Its financials aren't entirely public and Crypto.com hasn't disclosed its investors, although it claims to have no Wall Street backers.
Its aggressive marketing strategy has raised questions. Some argue that the frozen crypto market is a sign that the bubble will burst.
"There is a massive amount of money that is sloshing around the system at the moment, and therefore everyone is in land-grab territory and is looking for ways to make it work," says Adam Shapiro, a partner at Klaros Group.
Crypto.com, which was founded in 2016 by Hong Kong-based entrepreneurs, is the sixth largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily volume, according to researcher CryptoCompare. It has over ten million users, but wants to reach another billion, and becomes a top-20 global brand, according to its CEO. Kris Marszalek.
The goal of Super Bowl advertising is to reach around 100 million users. Broadcaster NBC charges as much as $7 million for 30 seconds.
If you're reaching 150 million in one event, it might pay for itself pretty quickly, says Paul Rogash, the chief executive officer of BetU, a cryptocurrency betting platform.
In 2021, the cryptocurrency market had a bleak year, as money flooded in, raising the value of all cryptocurrencies to.
With high-profile partnerships, Crypto.com has attempted to break ahead of the pack, including one last month announced Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, who will play their home games at the Crypto.com Arena.
South Park's commercial featuring Damon, directed by Wally Pfister, was so popular that it was approved in its February 2 season premiere.
"We have a lot of money here,' says Robert Siegel, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Crypto.com has declined to comment.
BUBBLE IN CRYPTO?
The business was first established as a cryptocurrency wallet and payment platform named Monaco and in 2017 raised $25 million through an initial coin offering. In 2018, the company was re-branded to Crypto.com and launched a new currency in 2019.
Crypto.com earns fees on transactions as well as on debit cards offered in partnership with Visa. It has a $500 million venture fund that invests in crypto and blockchain startups.
According to its website, the business employs 3,000 people across the globe and has openings in the areas of marketing, human resources, compliance, engineering, and business development.
That workforce figure is greater than the 2,781 employees listed in the most recent filing by the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, the publicly listed Coinbase, which was established in 2012 and has 72 million users.
Crypto.com said it was expanding its institutional client base, such as hedge funds and market makers last year.
Crypto.com, which is similar to Binance, Coinbase, and other Wall Street investors, claims to have never raised institutional funding. Marszalek told Bloomberg in January that the company's revenue increased by 22 percent last year.
"They're probably making a lot of money at a time where a market is insanely speculative," Siegel said.
When several overly-inflated tech firms went bust, some compare crypto spending-spree and Crypto.com's breakneck growth. These people have warned that investors are likely to drop risky digital assets when the Federal Reserve begins to hike rates aggressively.
For the first time since the fall, cryptocurrencies have had a rocky year to 2022.
Crypto.com is attempting to make the leap ahead of the pullback and is spending all it takes to get there, according to Mark Basa, the global brand manager of HOKK Finance, a cryptocurrency company.
"I believe that they'll win that race," he said.
