The celebrities who made money before the crash
Crypto mania seemed to really gain momentum as we saw a shift from a niche financial support to a platform for the athletes and celebrities themselves. They rebranded blockchain projects with their personal personas and used their profiles and charisma to attract interest from entirely new audiences and markets.
Shift from investments to recommendations
Looking at the 2020-2021 period, we see a bull market in which celebrities seemed to be launching NFTs every week, while simultaneously leading the exchanges and releasing “exclusive drops” specifically targeted at their existing fans. Kim Kardashian, Matt Damon and Paris Hilton were just some of the media names who took action, and they weren’t shy about putting themselves in the spotlight. Before we knew it, the faces we’d watched on TV and the big screen for years were now ambassadors for a new wave of fintech products that we naturally seemed to trust.
A sudden public reaction
Just when things seemed to be moving in only one direction, a unexpected crypto winter flipped the story and flipped the script, spawning a series of class action lawsuits. Criticism on social media was suddenly widespread and there was now a shift in underlying sentiment from ‘get rich’ to ‘be careful’. Without wanting to portray any particular celebrity in a negative light, we can take a step back and see a bigger picture of the misunderstood volatility. Over time, the crypto market had an innate relationship with price and value that many simply could not understand, if at all.
The aftermath of the crash
As quickly as the celebrities flooded into the industry, they started heading for the exit. The tap seemed to have been largely turned off and the public had become wary of what was on offer, but would there be anything left? It may not have been clear in the immediate aftermath, but we can now look back with the benefit of hindsight that only the passage of time can give us.
Today we see the persistence of blockchain innovation, emerging digital artists and more conservative fintech partnerships, all of which have matured as a result of the crash. The celebrities and public figures who chose to stay shifted from endorsement deals and speculation to strategic investments in technology, AI and content creation startups built on a foundation of blockchain technology.
