Coinbase’s idiosyncratic Super Bowl advertisement on Sunday is directing such a large swath of viewers to the exchange’s website that it ended up causing temporary technical difficulties.
The ad featured an unbranded QR code that bounced around Super Bowl viewers’ TV screens for nearly a full minute in the fashion of old-school DVD loading icons, followed by a brief Coinbase outro.
The code directed viewers to drops.coinbase.com, promotional giveaway that gives new Coinbase users $15 in free Bitcoin (BTC) and allows existing users to have a shot at winning one of three prizes worth $1 million each.
The exchange registered more than 20 million hits in 60 seconds, an influx so large that it caused issues on the website, according to Coinbase chief marketing officer Kate Rouch.
“We also saw engagement that was six times higher than our previous benchmarks. Understandably, this volume led to us temporarily throttling our systems. Hats off to our engineering team for getting the site back online so swiftly, and allowing us to welcome more people to the cryptoeconomy.”
Some members of the digital asset community informally dubbed the Super Bowl the “Crypto Bowl” this year due to the number of exchanges that purchased high-profile advertising spots at the event.
In addition to Coinbase, crypto exchanges FTX and Crypto.com also purchased advertisements.
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