Forget crypto bros and Lambos: Coinbase is prepared for the post-election crypto boom

A generously moustachioed man in a cowboy hat is driving down a sun-baked road in a classic, vintage pick-up truck. His dog sits across the bench seat. He pops a cassette into the tape deck. The voiceover says, “Crypto wasn’t for him.”

It goes on to paint this guy as the ultimate old schooler. A no fuss dude who fixes up old trucks and resells them. “But when it came time to make a sale, there were no easy options. He never could figure out why wire transfers took so long. Banks were never open when he needed them. So when a repeat buyer mentioned another option, he listened. Just a simple transfer. Secure, like a digital handshake. Crypto wasn’t for him. Until it was.”

The ad is part of a new Coinbase ad campaign that is positioning crypto as a safe, dependable, and sensible option for modern commerce far away from Silicon Valley or Wall Street. The three new spots aim to show cryptocurrencies—and Coinbase—as valuable and convenient utilities for regular, everyday folks.

“There are 52 million Americans that own crypto, 70% of them are under 40, and that audience is often widely mischaracterized and misunderstood in the media and in traditional conversation,” says Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch. “This audience is not a bunch of whiny losers who are spending all their money on avocado toast.”

Rouch says that crypto investors are predominantly young because when it comes to the economy, “they have been handed a shit sandwich,” thanks to issues like unaffordable housing and historic levels of debt.

“There are just so many actual structural economic issues facing this cohort of people,” says Rouch. “They’re not adopting crypto because they’re idiots. They’re adopting crypto because they see the fundamental failures of the existing system, and they are demanding a different way forward. And we as a brand have an opportunity to stand up for them.”

Since election day, crypto valuations have been on a bonanza, and President-elect Trump has said he will appoint a bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council to design transparent regulatory guidance. Trump met with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s a long way from the image—and stock price—crisis the crypto industry felt after the collapse of FTX in 2022.

It’s a pivotal moment for Coinbase, and Rouch says the brand is ready.

Post-FTX collapse

It was looking pretty bleak for Crypto for a bit. Back in November 2022, after more than a year of building up major sports sponsorships like the Miami Heat’s arena, Major League Baseball, Mercedes-Benz F1 team, and more, FTX declared bankruptcy and took much of crypto’s brand image with it. As prices swan-dived, thanks to plummeting trust in the overall industry, only true believers remained.

“It was not cool to be in crypto for the last couple of years,” says Rouch. “Nobody’s inviting you to the hot party because you’re working with crypto.”

As a brand, Coinbase made its biggest mark during the 2022 Super Bowl with a hypnotic, DVD menu-inspired QR code that intrigued and delighted millions, even if they didn’t see the connection to The Office meme.

The crypto hype cycle began to curdle soon after. Even before the FTX collapse, the crypto category was facing new scrutiny. Enough so that in May 2022, Coinbase dropped an ad called “Long Live Crypto” that unearthed old tweets declaring crypto’s demise from 2022, 2020, and 2017. Rouch says that was a move to let people know that Coinbase wasn’t going anywhere.

“We were saying we’re not going anywhere, we’re not abandoning you, we’re here to stay,” says Rouch. “Our strategy since then has been to market the answer to the question, why crypto? What we saw from all our competitors and the overall conversation was people talking about how to do this. Nobody is talking about why this matters.”

The brand team was actually on-set shooting a new ad when FTX declared bankruptcy. They had a major decision to make on whether to keep going or wait and see how things shook out. They chose the former, and the spot launched in early 2023.

This approach extended throughout last year, with the brand also pushing policy change. They asked users to call their government representatives directly, and drove a money truck from New York to DC decorated with crypto-friendly stats. Once there, coinciding with SEC chair Gary Gensler’s Congressional testimony, the brand handed out cold brew cans labeled with those same stats. One can even made it to Gensler’s desk.

https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1707092496398917785

For Rouch, the tough times were an ideal opportunity to push the idea of updating the current financial system, and distinguishing the Coinbase brand as a legitimate vehicle for that. Which brings us to this latest brand campaign.

Domestic issues

Instead of pitching its business in the midst of a scandal-plagued media cycle, this time the new work launches on an upswing. But Coinbase still needs to differentiate itself not only from traditional banks, but also its crypto-based competitors. For Rouch, that differentiation is stark because the company is based in the U.S.

“The United States has by far the most strict financial regulations in the world; it’s the gold standard. So what most entrepreneurs did was build their companies offshore,” says Rouch. “FTX was offshore. Crypto.com is offshore. Binance is offshore. Because these companies are offshore, in many cases they can offer things that Coinbase can’t because we have built our business in the United States within the regulatory perimeter such as it exists.”

But in the wake of the FTX collapse, what once appeared as a competitive disadvantage became something else entirely. “All of a sudden that seemed like a very smart strategy,” says Rouch. “Because we did it this way, it really gave us a platform to fight for a regulated future for crypto in the United States, which became a massive part of our brand platform over the past couple of years.”

Now, after crypto execs and investors spent more than $130 million during the 2024 elections, Coinbase is ready to cash in on its domestic brand investments. Chief legal officer Paul Grewal told Politico, “What happened [election] night was a watershed moment for crypto.”

The risk is if the new White House, Congress, and Senate take the shackles off crypto, it will no longer look like the path of everyday people, and more like the big banks wearing new clothes. With its new campaign, Coinbase is hoping to show the small ways this industry—and its products—can help anyone and everyone, whether you’re buying and selling classic trucks, sending your kid money, or running a small business.

“I think what Coinbase is able to do is sort of leverage its position to help give regular people a voice,” says Rouch. “This is not crypto bros and Lambos.”