Author: Zen, PANews

In February 2026, when Coinbase’s ads flashed again on the giant LED screens of the Super Bowl, accompanied by the Backstreet Boys’ classic single and the slogan “Crypto. For everybody.”, the audience was met with a chorus of sighs and more negative than positive comments, a stark contrast to the crazy night four years earlier known as the “Crypto Bowl”.

At the time, FTX’s logo was prominently displayed above the Miami Heat’s arena, and crypto companies were waving huge checks, attempting to buy decades of mainstream trust in just a few days. However, the ensuing collapse, lawsuits, and the farce of renaming the arena turned this “attention experiment” into one of the most expensive jokes in sports history.

On the…