AI dominated this year's Super Bowl ads as crypto sets its sights on Wall Street
This year's Super Bowl attracted the attention of 127.7 millio n viewers, but unlike three years ago, crypto ads were missing in action.
In 2022, the Super Bowl was flooded with high-profile crypto ads from Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange; Crypto.com, which rebranded Los Angeles’ Staples Center for $700 million and recently hosted the 2025 Grammy Awards; the Israel-based crypto exchange eToro; and FTX, which later collapsed in what was called "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”
“The absence of crypto-related ads at the Super Bowl this year is an unsurprising indication of the market recalibrating after the hype of previous years,” Alan Vey, founder of the blockchain firm Aventus, told TheStreet Crypto. “Given recent regulatory uncertainties and a tighter economic climate, many blockchain and crypto firms are shifting resources to building real-world applications rather than headline-grabbing campaigns.”
Moreover, with artificial intelligence (AI) dominating headlines in 2025, Vey told TheStreet Crypto that it was no surprise to see AI ads “front and center” at the Super Bowl. Large corporations like Google, Meta, Salesforce, and OpenAI rolled out AI-centric ads at this year’s event, featuring Hollywood celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey in a Salesforce spot on “how AI was meant to be” and Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, and Kris Jenner wearing Meta AI glasses.
"AI is the popular new kid on the block, stealing the limelight with bigger ad spends — but that doesn't mean momentum behind crypto has stalled,” Vey explained. “The industry is going through an evolution, maturing to focus on long-term sustainable growth, instead of short-lived marketing pushes.”
Other analysts, however, are cautious about framing this as a win for the AI industry over crypto. “This doesn’t signal AI’s triumph over crypto,” Utkarsh Ahuja, Founder of Moon Pursuit Capital, told TheStreet Crypto. “It’s no coincidence that David Sacks, the newly-appointed AI and Crypto Czar, oversees both domains — these technologies are not merely coexisting but converging, forging new frontiers together,” Ahuja said.
Importantly, the $3.16 trillion digital asset industry has been shifting its focus to Wall Street, making retail adoption — already reaching nearly a third of American adults — less of a priority, according to some in the industry.
“Crypto's focus for 2025 is on institutional adoption,” Eli Cohen, General Counsel at Centrifuge, told TheStreet Crypto. “Retail is less important, so no need for splashy expensive ads.”
Crypto ads in 2022 also had significant financial consequences for some celebrities, including comedian Larry David, who faced a class-action lawsuit from FTX customers accusing him of defrauding investors. Last year, David reflected on the legal fallout: "You know, I asked people, friends of mine who were well-versed in this stuff, 'Should I do this [FTX] ad? Is there anything wrong with this, me doing this? Is this okay?'" David told media last year. "And they said 'Yeah, this is totally on the up and up. Yeah. It's fine. Do it.' So, like an idiot, I did it.”
These missteps highlight the challenges of producing targeted ads for a relatively young industry that has, at times, lacked a clear narrative and struggled to gain legitimacy. Crypto detractors have long argued the technology is a solution in search of a problem rather than a meaningful innovation.
“Without a new narrative to sell to the public, it's difficult to imagine a crypto commercial which would look like anything other than a gambling advertisement, or perhaps an outright scam,” John Haar, Managing Director at Swan Bitcoin, told TheStreet Crypto.