Matt Damons’ crypto announcement is more than just newsworthy

“History is filled with almost – of those who almost ventured, who almost succeeded”, a Matt Damon clad in black said to camera as he walks in a virtual “museum of bravery” displaying a range of milestones in human success. “Then there are others – those who embrace the moment and engage,” he continues, passing a climber. The music video ends with Damon telling us, “Fortune favors the brave. ”

It could be a promotional video for all kinds of things – a new trailer for the Bourne franchise the actor is starring in; an advertisement for an outerwear brand with a lot of cash on hand; even a recruiting campaign for the armed forces or any other pursuit requiring a certain level of courage. But it’s none of those things. After Damon’s serious delivery of his latest line, it’s finally revealed what he’s selling: crypto.com.

The ad for the crypto and NFT platform, which first aired in October but has gone viral in recent days after being aired during an NFL game on Sunday, is not going well. The verdict on the internet seems fairly unanimous: the announcement is “worthy of interest“;”enough cringe“;”cringe“- you got the idea.

And rightly so. To equate some of the greatest human achievements in history with purchasing digital 1s and 0s that represent crypto tokens or NFTs of bored monkeys is ridiculous, as is the idea that it should be seen as courageous (recklessness is something entirely different). But the ad is more than just despicable – there’s something grotesque about seeing a man whose net worth was recently valued at $ 170 million shilling for a platform that is already making so much money it can afford to spend $ 700 million to rename Staples Center in Los Angeles to Crypto.com Arena.

Always beware of “calling the top” in any market – especially crypto. There is no set of fundamental factors by which to assess whether prices are too high or too low; it is a market whose main driver seems to be that of Elon Musk most recently decided to tweet; one of the main constituents of which is based on a dog prank meme. But the backlash from the announcement looks like a symptom of a market that has lost some of its momentum. Bitcoin is trading around $ 46,000, having lost a third of its value since hitting a record high in November; dogecoin has lost almost four-fifths of its value since last May.

The half-hearted reaction to the announcement suggests that the mood has changed from the exuberance of 2021, when the ‘LOL’ factor appeared to be becoming a real market driver. It also seems to be increasingly recognized that the crypto market is similar to a Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme. This idea has spread so much that crypto guys have even started to champion the idea of ​​these patterns. “Join a pyramid. It’s not a bubble unless it bursts, ”crypto blogger written last month in a message titled “In Praise of Ponzis”.

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Crypto.com declined to tell the Financial Times how much Damon was paid for his appearance, but the company reportedly spent over $ 100 million on the “Fortune favors the brave” campaign – the entire budget for Damon’s latest feature film, the box office flop The last duel. It’s probably safe to assume, therefore, that this was quite a decent salary for the actor – probably why Damon, who has speak on climate change and its impact on water scarcity, has chosen to neglect huge carbon footprint of bitcoin and other crypto tokens and NFT.

This is all a little sickening. In 2010, Damon was the narrator of a film about the financial crisis, Interior work. He ends it with the following on the financiers: “They will spend billions to fight against reform. It won’t be easy. But some things are worth fighting for. Crypto firms spending increasing sums on pressure, these words seem relevant now.

Damon is by no means the first celebrity to whip crypto to the masses. Kim Kardashian came under fire last year after promoting Ethereum Max and everyone from Lindsay Lohan to Melania Trump has flogged NFTs. But the truth is, we all expected better from him. The fact that even a man known for his philanthropy and keeping a low profile seems sensitive to the allure of crypto makes the whole thing more sinister.

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