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Coinbase’s Super Bowl ad brought 20 million people to its site in a single minute

The crypto ad boom is just beginning: Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com and eToro ran ads during the Super Bowl.

Coinbase’s Super Bowl ad brought 20 million people to its site in a single minute

Coinbase's Crypto Bowl — sorry, Super Bowl — ad.

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Over 20 million people visited Coinbase’s landing page in a single minute after its floating QR code captivated every Super Bowl viewer on Sunday, the company said. And the crypto industry's advertising push has apparently only just begun.

The so-called “Crypto Bowl” featured ads from Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com and eToro. The word “crypto” was referenced four, maybe five times during the entire Super Bowl on Sunday (if you count TurboTax's ad), but that proved more than enough to get people interested.

Coinbase jumped from 186th place to No. 2 on the App Store, while apps owned by FTX and eToro surged in App Store rankings for the finance category, according to data from The Block Research.

In addition to bringing millions of people to its landing page within a minute, Coinbase’s site briefly experienced some issues. Coinbase pledged to give away over $100 million in crypto this year, and it’s offering $15 in bitcoin to anyone who registers within the 48 hours after the ad dropped. That would be $1 billion in bitcoin if everyone signed up, the company said. Coinbase said it’s not currently disclosing the number of registrants.

Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch said the company’s overall goal is to introduce a billion people to crypto. “Crypto is about access for everyone, not old models of winner-takes-all, stoking fear or ‘FOMO.’ We believe the best way to learn about crypto is to actually try it,” Rouch told Protocol.

Super Bowl ads went for upwards of $7 million this year. Coinbase wouldn’t say how much it spent on its advertisement, while FTX didn’t respond to Protocol’s requests for comment and Crypto.com declined to comment.

eToro, however, spent over $20 million on its Super Bowl campaign, which began with its ad slot during the game and will continue through March, according to the company's Head of U.S. Marketing Brad Michelson. “eToro sees the Super Bowl as the biggest brand-building opportunity in America,” Michelson told Protocol. “We feel it was the perfect opportunity to put us on the map in the biggest consumer investing market in the world.”

Michelson said eToro’s website traffic spiked 10x in the minutes after its ad aired on Sunday. In the days since, the ad and other platforms related to eToro have garnered over 20 million views.

Sarah Roach

Sarah (Sarahroach_) writes for Source Code at Protocol. She's based in Boston and can be reached at sroach@protocol.com

coinbaseftxcrypto.cometorocrypto bowlsuper bowlblockfoliocrypto
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