Coinbase’s Shares Fall as App Crashes Temporarily After the Super Bowl Commercial

Coinbase, the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the United States, shares fell in premarket trading on Monday. This was after the app crashed temporarily over the weekend due to increased traffic following a Super Bowl advertisement.

Excess Traffic Caused App’s the Crash

Surojit Chatterjee, Coinbase’s chief product officer, announced on Twitter that the site received more than 20 million hits on its landing page in one minute, with engagement six times greater than prior standards.

During the NFL’s championship game, the year’s greatest US television event, a floating, colorful QR code was displayed, redirecting viewers to a URL that gave $ 15 in bitcoin to anyone who signed up for a Coinbase account by February 15.

“Coinbase recently had the highest volume of traffic it has ever seen, but our employees banded together and only had to limit traffic for a few minutes. We’ve returned and are ready for you,” Chatterjee stated.

In premarket trade, the company’s shares dipped 1.7% to $191.26.

Crypto Companies Find Footing into Sports Advertising

As many investors hunt for cash to offset pandemic-related losses, sports leagues have aggressively embraced cryptocurrency, spawning a sponsorship category that didn’t exist less than a year ago.

Crypto companies are banking that sports advertising will help them mainstream. None has made a larger impression than Crypto.com, which aired a commercial during Sunday’s Super Bowl and renamed the Staples Center in Los Angeles the Crypto.com Arena for $700 million last year.

The privately held Singapore business, which was hardly known a year ago, launched a dazzling Super Bowl ad among giant brands like Budweiser, GM (GM.N), and Pringles, as well as competitor crypto platforms, in a bid to drastically increase its user base.

Coinbase, FTX, Bitbuy, and eToro all sponsored ads during the US football final, betting that sports advertising will help them get into the mainstream.

The Increasing Crypto Familiarity

According to Morning Consult polls, sports enthusiasts are roughly twice as likely as non-sports fans to claim they are aware of cryptocurrencies. The highly acquainted sports fans are even more familiar with cryptocurrencies, with 2 in 3 self-described “avid” sports fans and 72 percent of sports bettors claiming to be aware of the digital currency. 24% of those who said they were sports fans held cryptocurrency.

“Working with athletes has the advantage of how effective they are at bringing this to a younger generation,” according to Ben Ziffren. “Athletes have an undeniable role to play in this.” Sports are also a pretty successful avenue for attracting men, who are twice as likely as women to say they are familiar with cryptocurrencies and three times as likely to own some.

There is no denying that the Cryptocurrencies craze has swept the globe. As a rising number of businesses continue to accept digital currencies in addition to government-backed cash, others have dubbed it a bubble or craze. They present a viable potential to expand global economic activity as more businesses accept them as payment.