Crypto.com Trading Volume Drops 91% One Year After ‘Brave’ Matt Damon Ad

Whichever version of the Latin proverb you choose, Crypto.comExchange volume doesn’t look very brave, bold or strong one year after the unveiling of the Matt Damon ad.

In the last year, Crypto.comThe normalized exchange volume has fallen by 91%, from $4 billion to $380 million per day, using a 7-day average, according to CoinGecko. That’s not to say that the ad is to blame for the drop off, but the company’s bid to stimulate growth with an A-lister doesn’t seem to have helped much.

There’s also the issue of the bear market in the space, which has seen crypto markets lose two-thirds of their market value compared to a year ago. But even before the markets took their big tumble, the reception for Crypto.comThe Matt Damon spot was lukewarm at best.

The ad compared crypto investors to astronauts, mountain climbers and the Wright Brothers. Shortly after its release, in November, Crypto.com spent $700 million for the naming rights to the Los Angeles arena formerly known as the Staples Center.

At the time, the marketing efforts seemed to have paid off an attic. Meanwhile, the Damon ad circulated in crypto circles for a few months and then started reaching people outside the industry by January of this year.

The reactions were not good. The ad was even interrupted by a South Park episode that featured a pee-drinking parody.

It is not just the trading volume that has suffered.

The exchange’s native Cronos token (CRO), which gives holders discounts on trading fees and other benefits, has a market capitalization of $2.8 billion and is trading at $0.11 on Friday afternoon, according to CoinGecko. Both of these metrics are about half of what they were a year ago.

Over the past couple of months, Crypto.com have also been through several rounds of layoffs and had to cancel one $495 million sponsorship deal with the European Champions League (EUFA). The same week that the news broke in August, the company filed a lawsuit against a woman for keep the $10 million it accidentally sent to her crypto wallet.

It’s only fair to say that the exchange’s peers have seen their volume plummet as well.

Huobi has lost 90% of its normalized volume. FTX is down 77%, Coinbase is down 75%, and Binance, which launched fee-free trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum over the summer, now has 57% less volume compared to last year.

The zero-fee bid to increase volume has been particularly pronounced at Bybit, where volume has increased by 757% compared to the end of October 2021.

As the CEO of FTX has routinely pointed out over the years, zero fees can dramatically and artificially inflate the exchange’s trading volume. He even called it “one of the most consistent historical facts in crypto,” on Twitter over the summer.