Buzz
Numerous Hollywood celebrities have been heavily promoting cryptocurrencies as if they were guaranteed investments.
The Super Bowl is one of the most anticipated sporting events in the United States, with an average of 112 million Americans tuning in to watch it on TV. Consequently, the amount that sponsors have to pay to appear in a few seconds of advertising during the event is staggering—$7 million for a 30-second spot.
This year, the spotlight of the Super Bowl belongs to cryptocurrency trading websites. One cryptocurrency platform even generously compensated famous faces, including LeBron James, who appeared in an advertisement advising viewers to invest boldly to become wealthy, concluding with the website's name. Although the website's name only flashed for a few seconds, it was enough to capture the attention of millions of viewers and LeBron James fans.
'All these cryptocurrency platforms are trying to make an impression on a large audience. They do this not because of the future of the cryptocurrency market, but for their own profits,' stated Professor Anindya Ghose from the Stern School of Business.
According to The New York Times, acclaimed actor Matt Damon once advertised cryptocurrencies, claiming they were as revolutionary as airplanes. Meanwhile, Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon publicly endorsed the cryptocurrency market on her personal Twitter account.
However, nobody knows if these famous stars have ever truly invested their own money in these complex financial products. If they haven't and also lack financial knowledge, could sharing this information with millions of fans lead to any risks?
Returning to the Super Bowl story, about 3 months after the loud cryptocurrency advertising, the cryptocurrency market began to collapse, losing about $1 trillion in value in a short period.
When interviewed by The New York Times, this was the response via email from Jeff Schaffer, the director of the Super Bowl program: 'Unfortunately, we have no comment on the collapse of the cryptocurrency market. Although advertising companies have explained many times, we still don't understand cryptocurrencies. Please don't invest. As for us, we just make some fun ads.'
Just some fun ads, but they never imagined the large societal impacts they would have.
Recently, reality TV star Kim Kardashian was fined $1.26 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for receiving up to $250,000 to post advertisements for the cryptocurrency EthereumMax. However, experts believe that measures to prevent celebrities from giving investment advice in the cryptocurrency market are not really effective.
Even in European countries, the number of people fined for violations is very low because authorities cannot control everything on the internet, not to mention the many closed groups or individuals who can message each other privately.
