Commercials are returning to the cryptocurrency space after a period of low-key advertising as Bitwise, Hashdex, and VanEck fight for superior placement in the race to create bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Every brand has launched ad videos targeted at mobile devices in the last two weeks. Actor Jonathan Goldsmith, best known for his part in Dos Equis’ “The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercial, stars in Bitwise’s commercial, while VanEck’s teaser uses a number of visual allusions to bitcoin to appeal to a more specialised audience. The current buzz around commercial-making seems to be focused on ETFs, with the likelihood of crypto advertisements returning to the Super Bowl stage in less than two months, as potential approval for bitcoin spot ETFs seems imminent.
In other news, Solana Saga cell phones are being sold for thousands of dollars each, and many of them have unclaimed 30 million BONK airdrops, which is around $450 at today’s exchange rates. The phone sold out in the US in mid-December, but the hoopla surrounding it prompted the development of a grassroots marketing approach. The airdrops, according to Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko, are a part of an attempt to “crack the App Store duopoly” and spur the creation of “crypto incentivized apps.” On the other hand, tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee recently declared that the Saga was the worst phone of the year and that he would never buy one.