Superbowl: FTX - BTC giveaway

UPDATE: Well this blog post did not age well. 3.12.24

If you watched the Superbowl, or are a fan of watching "just for the commercials," you may recall seeing an ad for FTX starring Larry David. I don't think I should need to inform you of who Larry David is, but to be brief Seinfeld would not have existed without him, among other great works of entertainment. Now the larger question at hand, what the heck is FTX? The whole boom of cryptocurrency is still hot in the pan, with dime-a-dozen coins, digital wallets, brokers, traders, miners...etc. FTX was developed by "traders for traders." A Bahamian company with Sam Bankman-Fried at the helm, who wanted to cut through the white noise and lend a platform to the everyday trader. Think Robinhood, but based solely on crypto. In case you missed the ad, you can see it below, courtesy of Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BH5-rSxilxo
UPDATE - The video is now private

Here's where things seemingly get interesting. The flash in the pan notoriety was a slow ramp up and then explosive boom. FTX was promoting during the big game, they would be giving away free BTC (Bitcoin). That should draw a crowd. The only way to enter was to retweet their pinned tweet after the ad aired. Some people (including myself) were privy to this as the slow ramp up occurred a week or so prior to the game. It was interesting to see their twitter account grow to half a million followers within a few hours. Now the game has come and gone, the ad has aired, and the pinned tweet has garnered (at the time of this writing) 186K RT's. It's been four days, and there was never (that I saw, or maybe anyone else) a timeframe for when the winners would be announced. FTX simply mentioned "watch your DM's." Countless people are tweeting at FTX hoping for answers or clarity, but it has been nothing but radio silence with the countless exceptions of self promotion.

I'm not really sure what the takeaway here is. On one hand this could have been a mere smoke and mirrors act to cut through the hordes of white noise to get their brand ahead of all the competition. If this is the case, it seemingly worked, albeit all the pissed people screaming for answers. Need not discount customer support, given not all of these people can be considered customers. In the hype of all of this, I did download the app, so it could be speculated not only did they bolster their social following, they also increased their active downloads, as well as increased their DAU/MAU (daily/monthly active users) to impress stakeholders. Which in turn will help line the pockets of the FTX brand as long as they keep the momentum.

On the other side, there's a chance they will make good on their commitment to the giveaway. I'm not sure how they will determine winners, if they just throw the total number of RT's into google randomize and pull a few numbers that way, or they are going to scrutinize the selected winners based on their Twitter accounts. Because let's be honest, not EVERY account on Twitter is real, or on any social platform for that matter.

We will see in the days to come if FTX makes good on their "contest." It could be that I am antsy to hear the results, or if they don't make good because they are based in the Bahamas and aren't technically required to abide by United States contest/promotion bylaws. Only time will tell, and the massing amounts of angry tweets.

#FreeTheBTC