Just a few short months ago, Matt Damon exhorted us to fearlessly buy into cryptocurrencies — in a slick CGI ad for Crypto.com hyping the tagline, “Fortune Favors the Brave.”
Now, with cryptocurrencies in freefall and cratering to new lows, the Oscar-winning star of “Good Will Hunting” and “The Martian” is getting mercilessly dragged again for his gig as the face of Crypto.com in a new round of online jeering.
Users across social media are pointing out that if you had taken Damon’s advice to buy into cryptocurrencies last fall, the value of your holdings would have dropped roughly two-thirds today.
If you bought $1,000 of bitcoin the day Matt Damon’s “Fortune favors the brave!” commercial came out, it would now be worth $375 pic.twitter.com/rp5IdjBD3m
— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) June 13, 2022
Damon is one of a slew of celebs who have touted cryptocurrencies, alongside bold-face names like Kim Kardashian, Steph Curry, Larry David, DJ Khaled, Floyd Mayweather and Tom Brady.
In the Crypto.com ad, Damon takes viewers on a historical journey of brave men and women who have made a difference in the world, inspiring people to “be their bravest selves.” The ad, directed by Wally Pfister, began airing in October and also ran during NBC’s Super Bowl LVI telecast.
“These mere mortals, just like you and me, as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: Fortune favors the brave,” Damon says in the spot, which ends with the actor peering onto the surface of Mars from a spacecraft.
Crypto.com, founded in 2016, also nabbed naming rights to L.A.’s Staples Center — which is now called Crypto.com Arena — under a 20-year agreement.
Cryptocurrencies have seen a massive decline in the last seven months, and the plunge has accelerated among broader fears of an economic recession. Bitcoin, which hit a high of $68,990.90 in November 2021, was trading below $21,000 early Wednesday.
With the ongoing sell-off hammering crypto values, virtual currency companies including Crypto.com are making layoffs as they brace for a looming “crypto winter.” And wags can’t help but indulge in a new round of schadenfreude at Damon’s expense.
I was assured by Matt Damon that such a thing would not happen. https://t.co/bBGmO9zIhN
— Rob Blackwell (@robblackwellAB) June 13, 2022
Matt Damon calculating how much he lost investors since shilling crypto at the top pic.twitter.com/5ri4tGJNi1
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) June 14, 2022
Listen, I know he doesn’t have the best record with financial advice, but I feel pretty good about Matt Damon’s new commercial. pic.twitter.com/xQyJvEmJCF
— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) June 14, 2022
hi matt damon here. i want to apologize for not making it clear when i did that primetime crypto commercial that i was only speaking to multi millionaires and not to losers like you who can’t afford to lose a few thousand dollars
— eve6 ha (@Eve6) June 13, 2022
We should never forget that Matt Damon, Lebron James, and Larry David all have a tonnnnn of money and plenty of advertising options, but still elected to sell out for Crypto near the top and shill it to the common man.
— High Yield Harry (@HighyieldHarry) June 13, 2022
