A Crypto.com commercial during last year's Super Bowl featured LeBron James and a 2003 version of himself sitting down for a heart-to-heart, with the younger James asking the elder: Is the hype too much? Am I ready? To which the elder replies: I can't tell you everything, but if you want to make history, you've got to call your own shots.
The commercial, along with those from FTX (Larry David as a costumed pitch man), Coinbase (floating QR code) and eToro, marked notable investments by cryptocurrency companies seeking to go mainstream and join the big, traditional Super Bowl ad categories, leading some industry watchers to refer to last year's game as the "Crypto Bowl.