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Over the past few years, countless celebrities hopped aboard the cryptocurrency bandwagon thanks in no small part to the lucrative deals they were offered to help various companies shill Bitcoin, NFTs, and other digital assets. However, it’s safe to say most of those endorsements have not aged well based on the current state of the space.
Matt Damon’s fairly infamous stint as a spokesperson for Crypto.com produced one of the most cringeworthy commercials in the history of advertising, but he was far from the only famous face who probably regrets the decision to team up with a major player in the world of crypto.
Last year, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen were just two of the many celebrities who were sued for promoting FTX, the exchange that absolutely imploded after disgraced wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried saw the facade he’d constructed come crumbling down in historic fashion.
Just thinking of Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen pushing FTX last year and all of the money that those who joined after their endorsement/commercials might've lost this week…pic.twitter.com/iZmt7qy2LY
— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) November 11, 2022
Following the collapse, there were also a number of largely unsubstantiated reports that suggested the now-divorced duo had lost a fortune (although one internet detective also floated a fairly wild conspiracy theory that asserted they saw the writing on the wall in the months leading up to FTX declaring bankruptcy and attempted to offload their stake).
Now, we have some more insight into the financials courtesy of documents that recently surfaced in bankruptcy court. According to Insider, a new filing shows Brady owns 1.1 million common shares of FTX stock and Bundchen has a little under 700,000 in her portfolio (Patriots owner Robert Kraft also had some significant holdings thanks in no small part to the Series A and B contributions he made during FTX’s early funding rounds).
There’s no way to know exactly how much Brady and Bundchen lost, but Forbes previously estimated their shares were respectively worth $45 million and $25 million as of June of 2021 before they essentially became worthless when SBF’s house of cards collapsed.
Ouch.