Investment firm begins aggressive crypto ad campaign

August 19, 2020
By Nicholas Say

Crypto investment firms are advertising cryptos to the public as a way to stay safe from fiat currency inflation

Grayscale Investments is starting to advertise cryptos via television, a potentially big moment for decentralised currency as an asset class. Some commentators have drawn parallels between the ad campaign and a similar advert push undertaken in 1948 by investment bank Merrill Lynch.

The more recent ad campaign by Grayscale is being run on major cable networks, like CNBC, Fox business, Fox and MSNBC. With such a large amount of publicity, both Grayscale and cryptos may attract many new investors.

The move by Grayscale is hardly out of the ordinary. Joshua Frank, co-founder and CEO of The Tie, a crypto data aggregation platform, commented on this trend:

“A few years ago I would have never expected a print advertisement related to cryptocurrency. I think the transition to the Bitcoin as a digital gold narrative is the reason that a print ad has been pursued. Trying to get an older generation who invests in gold to view Bitcoin as a digital alternative.”

Alternative asset are hot

Over in the UK, Galaxy Digital is advertising Bitcoin in the Financial Times (FT). As one of the world’s most prominent sources of market information, the Galaxy Digital advert may mark a new era of mainstream involvement in decentralised assets.

While gold and Bitcoin are very different assets, Bitcoin has some advantages over the precious metal. It is very easy to send cryptos globally, and it is also much easier to spend a small fraction of a digital coin – which is very difficult with physical metals.

Inflation may be coming

The major central banks have been creating new debt at a furious pace in 2020. The US Federal Reserve has expanded its balance sheet by at least $2.5 trillion so far this year, and it may have to add more in the coming months.

As all this new money enters the economy, the amount of goods and services are falling. US Q2 GDP fell by more than 32%, which puts into perspective the lack of economic goods and services available to buy with the expanding money supply.