Coinbase spent $14 million on a Super Bowl ad for a color-changing QR code that bounces around on the screen for 30-seconds; now the website just crashed

Super Bowl commercials are always a stage to get your products and services in front of millions of viewers. This year is no different as some of the biggest tech companies including Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and Uber lined up Hollywood hotshots for the Super Bowl LVI.

But one company that stole the show is Coinbase. The cryptocurrency exchange spent $14 million on a color-changing QR code commercial that bounces around on a black screen for 30-seconds during the Super Bowl with a message:

“We only trynna sell to people who actually know what this is.”

The ad led to a link where viewers could sign up for $15 in bitcoin. The commercial of just a QR code and nothing else prompted some reactions from viewers during Super Bowl LVI.

In a statement, Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch said, “At Coinbase we have a goal of introducing a billion people to the crypto economy. Crypto is about access for everyone, not old models of winner takes all, stoking fear of ‘FOMO.’”

Immediately after the ad was run, many people flocked to the Coinbase website, eventually causing the site to crash. Reacting to the news of the website crash, NSA Whistleblow Edward Snowden said on Twitter,

“Coinbase spending $16,000,000 on a Superbowl ad to direct people to their website and $0 to make sure that website doesn’t crash 10 seconds after the ad starts is so very internet.”

Coinbase spending $16,000,000 on a Superbowl ad to direct people to their website and $0 to make sure that website doesn't crash 10 seconds after the ad starts is so very internet.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 14, 2022

You can watch the ad below.

Late last year, Coinbase announced plans to launch an NFT marketplace that lets users mint, collect and trade NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. Users can sign up to a waitlist for early access to the feature, the company said.

Coinbase went public back in April. The cryptocurrency startup was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. It provides a digital currency wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can transact with new digital currencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, and litecoin.