Crypto Exchange Coinbase is forced to throttle traffic after its viral QR-code Super Bowl ad briefly crashes its website.
Crypto Exchange CoinBase said that their services were running and went again, after the traffic on his website had to throttle thanks to viral ad spot of the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Coinbase released a 60-second commercial during Super Bowl LVI that featured a QR code that bounced around like a retro screensaver. When users activated the code, it took them to a page on the exchange’s website that offered $15 worth of free bitcoins if they set up an account.
However, Coinbase, a publicly traded crypto exchange, said it had to limit traffic after the ad brought a large number of visitors to its site.
“@coinbase just saw more traffic than ever, but our teams came together and only had to throttle traffic for a few minutes,” the company’s chief product officer, Surojit Chatterjee, said on Twitter late Sunday. Now we’re back and ready for you.
Twitter was full of people who complained that they could not come to the website shortly after the commercial aired.
“I don’t understand how a billion-dollar company can’t build servers that prevent a website crash,” one user posted.
Others referred to Coinbase’s records of crashes and glitches, and stated the company need to have done greater to prepare. One said: “C’mon @coinbase, you crash on a normal Tuesday! You know you could not handle this!”
However, the advert’s simplicity even gained praise. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban tweeted: “The QRcode ad without a copy was brilliant.”
This year’s Super Bowl was a milestone for cryptocurrency trading as exchanges FTX and Crypto.com also promoted their products. The game, wherein the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals, was played at LA’s SoFi Stadium, named after every other digital asset-capable exchange.
It is believed that the CoinBase’s 60-second announcement cost around $ 14 million, with the CNN report that a place of 30 seconds amounted to $ 7 million.
Shares of the crypto exchange fell 2.3% to $189.98 in premarket trading. It is down more than 45% from a November high of over $350, reflecting the sharp decline in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
