Coinbase’s Silly QR Code Sweepstakes is Done, But It’s Barely Holding On

Coinbase, now the second-biggest crypto exchange after Binance since the demise of FTX, is struggling to save face after a major insider trading scandal, all while hemorrhaging employees.

During the 2022 Super Bowl, it ran an ad that was literally just a QR code bounding up and down the screen like an old screen saver. The ad took users to a page to a crypto sweepstakes where users could earn $15 in free bitcoin and potentially win $3 million. After the ad aired, the site immediately crashed from all the new traffic.

Now Coinbase would be loathe to give anything away for free. The company has been hit hard by the industry turmoil. Bank of America downgraded Coinbase’s stock, citing risk of contagion with FTX. Last month, the company laid off 20% of its staff, about 950 people.

It’s also dealing with a big PR SNAFU after a former product manager for Coinbase, Ishan Wahi, was sentenced to 10 months in prison last month after he was accused of passing along info on crypto asset listings to family, who then used the funds to buy up shares of assets just before they hit the market. The man’s brother, Nikhil, also pled guilty to wire fraud charges on Tuesday.

Now Coinbase is trying to position itself as just a simple exchange, nothing crazy going on here. CEO Brian Armstrong belabored that point in a tweet on Wednesday. Of course, one can’t forget the strange, bouncing QR code and its promise of a get-rich-quick sweepstakes to lure people into diving deep into an incredibly volatile market, as evidenced by this past year alone.