With leading crypto exchanges looking for ways to trim down spending on marketing and advertising efforts during the ongoing market downturn, ads featuring celebrities such as actor Matt Damon, as well as athletes LeBron James and Tom Brady, have reportedly disappeared from US television.

Data obtained by TV-ad measurement company ISpot.tv shows that crypto companies - including Crypto.com, Coinbase, and FTX - have dramatically decreased their expenditure on television marketing in the past months, Bloomberg reported. In February 2022, the month of the Super Bowl, industry players spent USD 84.5m on such activities. A month later, the number fell from this high, going down to only about USD 18m. 

Last June, crypto businesses spent USD 3m on TV ads, and the figure reported for July 2022, at a mere USD 36,000, illustrates how little the sector is now willing to spend on television advertising. It is noteworthy that the July 2022 figure was the lowest monthly total since January 2021.

Eric Haggstrom, director of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions, told Bloomberg that,

“Ad sellers shouldn’t expect growth in this vertical the remainder of the year due to the crash in crypto valuations and emerging allegations of fraud among companies in the crypto market. Crypto has been a boom and bust industry since its inception, and advertising budgets will follow the same trajectory.”

It is unclear when, and if, crypto ad budgets will return to their levels from last year when industry giants such as Crypto.com were unveiling massive marketing campaigns. At that time, the company aimed to spend more than USD 100m to boost its worldwide recognition, hiring Oscar-winning Damon to play in its commercial, giving the world the now-famous line: "fortune favors the brave." 

Bill Daddi, president of marketing agency Daddi Brand Communications, was quoted as saying that, should crypto companies go back to advertising on TV in the fall, the messaging might change from "the fear of missing out and seizing the day" to "rebuilding confidence and education after all the tumult."

Bloomberg reported that Crypto.com declined to comment, while FTX and Coinbase didn’t respond to requests for comment.