How Much Was Matt Damon Paid For Crypto Ad

One year agone, on October 28, 2021, the visitor Crypto.com premiered an ad starring Matt Damon. After it appeared during NFL games, it drew a great deal of attention for Damon’s suggestion that only cowards would fail to purchase cryptocurrency — only if you jumped in with both feet, you would be demonstrating backbone comparable to that of astronauts. Crypto.com, based in Singapore, is a platform that mainly allows users to merchandise in cryptocurrencies.

On that day, bitcoin, the near famous cryptocurrency, was trading at $threescore,608 apiece. As of the moment this was published, 1 bitcoin costs $twenty,717.

That means that if you were encouraged by Damon to buy $1,000 worth of bitcoin concluding Oct 28, it would now be worth $342.

If you purchased $ane,000 of Ethereum, the side by side most pop cryptocurrency, it would be worth $363. I thousand dollars of the Nasdaq Crypto Index is currently trading at $336.

As the crypto market has crashed, the Damon spot has been the subject of worldwide ridicule, and it seems destined to become down as one of the about magnificent own goals in advertising history. Crypto.com certainly recognizes this and wisely has set the YouTube version of the advert to private.

The good news is that you can still scout it here via Archive.org, and if y'all haven’t seen it already, you should not deny yourself its many joys. In information technology, Damon strides through a CGI Hall of Adventurers, past ane) a human being who might be Christopher Columbus, 2) a mountain climber, iii) a Wright brother, 4) a man attempting to osculation a adult female at a bar, and v) a grouping of multiracial, gender-balanced, futuristic astronauts. Damon, who you can tell is authentic because he hasn’t shaved, tells usa:

History is filled with almosts — those who almost adventured … who well-nigh achieved … but ultimately, for them it proved to be too much. Then in that location are others: The ones who embrace the moment and commit. And in these moments of truth, these men and women, these mere mortals, just like yous and me … as they peer over the border, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four uncomplicated words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: “Fortune favors the brave.”

There are so many funny things virtually this, it’south difficult to keep rail. Merely to beginning, it’due south a skillful thought to call up the likely origin of the phrase “fortune favors the brave.” In A.D. 79, Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and military commander, witnessed the famed eruption of Mountain Vesuvius from nearby. He decided to phase a rescue mission by sailing several ships straight toward the conflagration. His nephew later wrote: “Having hesitated a bit well-nigh whether he should turn back, he shortly said to the helmsman, who was advising that he do just that: ‘Fortune favors the brave: head for Pomponianus.’”

This was indeed brave, but the fortune part didn’t piece of work out, since Pliny got to his destination and was quickly asphyxiated. His body was found afterwards covered in pumice.

It’s useful to keep this in heed if you picket the “Making Of” video virtually the ad (as well now set to private). In it Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com’s chief marketing officeholder, explains that “Fortune favors the brave isn’t merely a line for a campaign. Information technology’s genuinely how Crypto.com sees the globe.” And Crypto.com indeed seems to have charted a Pliny-esque path, as it reportedly only fired 40 percentage of its workforce.

Then in that location’s the ad’southward old-timey, 19th century-fashion hucksterism. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel to imagine Damon standing next to his carriage in forepart of a curious crowd, proclaiming, “You lot, sir! The admirer who rode here on his tandem velocipede! I encounter you’re here with your paramour with her parasol and enormous bustle. Just she surely won’t favor you with her feminine affections whatever longer if you lot’re too
meek to try Dr. Crypto’s Ophidian Amalgam!”

The advertising is also total of easter eggs for crypto enthusiasts. The main astronaut’s proper name tag reads Satoshi, a reference to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of bitcoin. The ceiling above the astronauts reads “HODL,” which stands for “Hold on for Dear Life,” a pop proverb amongst crypto owners who vow non to sell their holdings no matter what happens to the price.

Information technology’s unclear how Damon was compensated for the ad. A Bloomberg article from terminal Oct 28 says that Damon is an investor in Crypto.com simply not whether he received shares for his work. It likewise says that Crypto.com made a $1 one thousand thousand donation to Damon’southward charity Water.org, although information technology does not state that this was in render for the ad. “I’ve never done an endorsement like this,” Damon is quoted as saying. “We’re hoping this is the starting time of a slap-up long-term collaboration.” (Damon’s publicist did non immediately respond to a asking for comment and information on the terms of the advertisement.)

It is, of course, possible that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general volition recover from their current swoon. The value of bitcoin complanate by almost half in 2021 and and so went on to new heights. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has said that it could increase in value 100 times from its current level. If you’re a believer, feel free to bookmark this article so you can jeer at it when this comes to pass.

However, it appears more likely that the value of cryptocurrencies will go on to deteriorate since at that place’s no sign that they tin serve any purpose that boring, regular money doesn’t already.

If this happens, this “Fortune favors the dauntless” advertizement will get down in history every bit a particularly vivid instance of how coin equally a concept mesmerizes the man mind and overwhelms our power to call up rationally. How could it be otherwise? Coin is both totally imaginary and also rules every aspect of our lives. The fact that it even got Damon — by all accounts an unusually intelligent and well-intentioned celebrity — shows just how powerful and unsafe it is.