With the FTX crypto exchange debacle in the rearview mirror, the ghosts of the industry’s former leading exchange are still haunting the cryptocurrency market, given the exclusion of this year’s National Football League (NFL) biggest night. 

Super Bowl LVI was the night for the crypto industry in sports. Starring the commercials of the closing season of the NFL, companies such as FTX, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and eToro raised the flag for the industry at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

This year in Super Bowl LVII, the crypto industry will have no representation in the commercials for American football’s big night. According to several reports, the recent FTX fiasco, layoffs, and legal scrutiny that has engulfed the industry led the NFL to ban the industry from its big night. 

Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales for sports network Fox Sports, told the Associated Press that there would be zero representation from the nascent industry during this day.

Evans added that initially, two crypto companies had Super Bowl commercials booked and done, while others would have participated on the yard line of the event, all of this before the FTX bankruptcy and the public feud that triggered a storm in the industry.

Each year, more than 100 million Americans are expected to watch the NFL championship game to crown the season’s winner, and with that, many viewers turn to their TVs to watch the commercials that air between the action on the field. 

Last year’s Super Bowl was dubbed the “Crypto Bowl” because cryptocurrency companies ran flashy commercials. But since FTX’s bankruptcy and the indictment of its founder in a scheme to defraud investors, the industry has been excluded due to the public scandal.

Crypto exchange FTX and significant companies of the crypto ecosystem bought ads last year as part of a marketing campaign to promote and introduce cryptocurrencies to more than 100 million viewers of the event, gaining mainstream acceptance. 

The crypto companies at the event featured stars like comedian Larry Davies for FTX’s ad and NBA legend Lebron James for Cypto.com. 

Coinbase’s ad featured a floating QR code, which generated so much attention that the platform’s website crashed during the Super Bowl game.

The ads in the Super Bowl drew negative attention, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrow Brown, who questioned the appearance of these ads in the Super Bowl’s commercial breaks and asked why these crypto ads had such a prominent display during the Super Bowl.

“The ads left a few things out. They didn’t mention the fraud, scams, and outright theft,” Brown said during a February congressional hearing. “The ads didn’t point out that you can lose big in crypto’s huge price swings. They didn’t tell you about the high fees pocketed by the crypto companies.”

Today’s cryptocurrency market cap is $1.4 trillion, a change of 2.9% in the last 24 hours, and is still down 46% from last year. Bitcoin’s market cap is $449 billion, representing a 39% dominance over the market. 

Stablecoin’s market cap is $138 billion and has a 12.14% share of the total crypto market cap.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Trading View. 

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