Remember that Crypto.com commercial titled, “Fortune Favors The Brave” that featured movie star Matt Damon?
In case you don’t, here’s a refresher. Damon did a now-infamous commercial for the cryptocurrency platform that got roasted on social media when it came out, and feelings toward it haven’t improved much in the year since the commercial originally debuted, on Oct. 28, 2021.
At the time, the crypto good times were rolling. Prices for bitcoin
BTCUSD,
ether
ETHUSD,
and dogecoin
DOGEUSD,
were nearly double what they are in October 2022, and market caps for crypto-affiliated companies like Coinbase
COIN,
and Robinhood
HOOD,
were also much higher.
“And in these moments of truth, these men and women, these mere mortals — just like you and me — as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: Fortune favors the brave,” Damon says in the ad.
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Many have been critical of the ad for touting crypto in such a trail-blazing way, and it has come under greater scrutiny since the crypto market has been crushed in the past year.
Unfortunately, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of bitcoin when the commercial debuted, your crypto value would be $334, roughly a third of what it was when you started.
Meanwhile, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of ether when the commercial debuted, its value would be $364 one year later.
The commercial was also played during the Super Bowl, in February 2022. It has now been viewed 9 million times on Twitter and millions more on YouTube, but the ad no longer appears on Crypto.com’s YouTube channel. Crypto.com and Matt Damon did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
“I’ve never done an endorsement like this,” Damon, who is also a Crypto.com investor, said when the commercial debuted in 2021. The actor told Bloomberg that he will “ride or die with the economy” — but he’s also not quitting his day job.
Celebrities have made headlines several times over the past year with their crypto endorsements. Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Brady and Mike Tyson were all crypto advocates in recent years, and Kardashian was recently fined $1.26 million by the SEC over an Instagram post that promoted a digital token.
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One lawyer recently told MarketWatch that it’s “particularly easy to convince people to spend money on cryptocurrency projects.”
Crypto markets can be extremely volatile and it’s important to make informed financial decisions when dealing with crypto.
Prices for crypto have continued to plummet throughout 2022. Values for many cryptos are down over 70% from 2021 highs. The total market cap for all crypto nearly hit $3 trillion during parts of 2021, but is now lower than $1 trillion.
On Friday, bitcoin was trading just above $20,000 and etherum was trading just below $1,500.
