Matt Damon has starred in a lot of popular (and, for the record, unpopular) movies in his time. But perhaps his most impactful screen work was a commercial. This year’s Super Bowl featured a bizarre ad for Crypto.com, the Singapore crypto exchange, in which the Oscar-winning screenwriter (but not yet Oscar-winning thespian) dared people to be ambitious…by investing in dodgy alternative currency. He was dragged then, and he’s been dragged every time the crypto market has suffered some calamity.
Lo and behold, that happened. As per Newsweek, on Monday the price of Bitcoin dropped to $23,000 — its lowest price in years. That caused a ripple effect across the crypt-world, with other currencies — Ethereum, tether, BNB, Dogecoin, Cardano — seeing declines as well.
To make matters worse, Crypto.com — again, the company for whom Damon cut the ad — announced they were laying off 260 employees, or 5% of its workforce, as per Insider. It’s a big step-down after late 2021, when the crypto market hit an all-time high. It was then that a confident Crypto.com threw around money: $100 million on the Damon ad campaign and a whopping $700 million to have the Staples Center in Los Angeles renamed after them for the next 20 years.
A lot of celebrities have thrown their weight behind cryptocurrency: Kim Kardashian, Jake Paul, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, even Larry David. But it appears most people associate it with the star of The Legend of Bagger Vance, as evidenced by all the people slamming Damon after all the recent grim crypto news.
Matt Damon to everyone he got into crypto last year: pic.twitter.com/k17bA02GUZ
— High Yield Harry (@HighyieldHarry) June 13, 2022
I was assured by Matt Damon that such a thing would not happen. https://t.co/bBGmO9zIhN
— Rob Blackwell (@robblackwellAB) June 13, 2022
Matt Damon calculating how much he lost investors since shilling crypto at the top pic.twitter.com/5ri4tGJNi1
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) June 14, 2022
Glad we can all unify behind hating Matt Damonpic.twitter.com/pFSbFQWspd
— High Yield Harry (@HighyieldHarry) June 13, 2022
Matt Damon!
https://t.co/rkhcR4D0xr pic.twitter.com/97MLIJrfe3
— TwinTurboCelica (@TwinTurboCe1ica) June 14, 2022
Matt Damon selling his crypto last year pic.twitter.com/FCv2Khq7VZ
— Nene Hilarious (@NeneHilarious) June 13, 2022
Everyone who listened to Matt Damon about buying crypto is realizing that movie stars are not financial experts. https://t.co/33J0yJzovq
— Joe William Bowles II
Some pointed out how little you’d have if you invested in crypto due to Damon’s commercial.
If you bought $1,000 of bitcoin the day Matt Damon’s “Fortune favors the brave!” commercial came out, it would now be worth $375 pic.twitter.com/rp5IdjBD3m
— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) June 13, 2022
Others argued that it’s not a celebrity’s fault if you listened to them about financial matters.
I love Matt Damon, but I didn’t let him talk me into doing stupid things with money. That’s on y’all.
— Melisa Sedai
#WOT
#MTFBWY (@mariabronn75) June 13, 2022
And yet, celebrities should know better, too.
We should never forget that Matt Damon, Lebron James, and Larry David all have a tonnnnn of money and plenty of advertising options, but still elected to sell out for Crypto near the top and shill it to the common man.
— High Yield Harry (@HighyieldHarry) June 13, 2022
Anyway, Damon may think that fortune favors the bold, but right now the bold do not have a fortune. You’re better off listening to The O.C. alum and current Gotham star Ben McKenzie.