Coinbase Crashes after Super Bowl Ad and UK Authorities Seize NFTs

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The 2022 Super Bowl was flooded with crypto ads, foremost among which was the Coinbase ad. The ad, though widely spoken of as impressive, led to the crashing of the website shortly after it went live.

Meanwhile, UK tax authorities seized NFTs for the first time in a 1.4 million pound tax fraud case. The authorities said the seizure was made as part of a crackdown on suspected criminal activities to hide money.

Coinbase crashes following Super Bowl ad

Perhaps the Coinbase ad was the most talked about in February 13, 2022 Super Bowl. The 60-second ad which cost Coinbase $14 million was an unique single QR code bouncing around the screen. Viewers who scanned the code were redirected to Coinbase’s website to claim a $15 bonus in Bitcoin and enroll for a chance to participate in a $3 million dollar giveaway.

Apparently, this generated way more traffic to the website that Coinbase anticipated, which led to the crash of the site. The crypto community on Twitter didn’t seem surprised as Coinbase is known to crash under heavy traffic at times of high crypto activity and this was no exception.

Sir, you aren’t wrong https://t.co/rJ4v1nhoxh

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) February 14, 2022

This was kind of a disappointment though that Coinbase didn’t fix the issue with the website before running such an expensive and successful debut ad on Super Bowl, one of the most watched shows every year. The crashing of the website may have also given a bad impression about crypto, especially to those entering the space for the first time via the ad.

UK authorities seize NFTs for the first time

In another development, the main tax authority in the UK, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) seized Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for the first time in a fraud case on Monday 13 February. The three NFTs were owned by three people who are said to have used many ways to evade value added taxes (VAT) to the tune of 1.4 million pounds (1,9 million dollar).

The tax agency obtained a warrant to seize $6,765 (£5,000) worth of digital assets and the three NFTs. Though not used as a tool in the fraud, the NFTs were seized as assets that may be used to recover the funds should the suspects fail to pay up.