Matt Damon is undoubtedly one of the most loved actors on the planet and is often praised for being very generous when it comes to giving fans an autograph or spending time with them during interactions.
However, the actor disappointed many fans by deciding to appear in the 2021 Crypto.com ad that seemingly promoted investing in crypto with the message “Fortune favors the brave.”
At the time, prices of many cryptocurrencies were skyrocketing, and not just Damon, but stars like Larry David and Justin Beiber showed either their support or involvement in the industry one way or another. But things took a turn for the worse very quickly.
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Why Fans Were Left Disappointed With Matt Damon for His Crypto Ad
The most common phenomenon of speculative markets is that assets that go up quickly more than often come down at a much faster pace, leaving excited but naive buyers stunned and the rug pulled.
Larry David filmed a Super Bowl commercial for the exchange FTX. In November 2022, the company filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Justin Beiber‘s Bored Ape NFT, which he bought by splashing more than $1 million, has significantly declined in value. Customers of Crypto.com also saw the value of their different cryptocurrencies plummet as the whole industry struggled to keep the momentum going. This only intensified the frustrations of some fans toward Matt Damon‘s decision to take part in the crypto ad in the first place.
However, in an interview with the Associated Press, the Good Will Hunting star suggested he had very good reasons to become the face of Crypto.com’s marketing campaign.
“We had a down year in water.org and I did that commercial in an attempt to raise money for water.org,” the 53-year-old explained. “I gave my whole salary to water.org because we were down, and Crypto.com heard about that, and they gave $1 million to water.org completely on their own. I definitely have a lot of gratitude to them for what they did for our foundation.”
While fans appreciate Damon’s work with Water.org to promote access for everyone and everywhere to safe water and sanitation, there are still many who begrudge him for doing the ad. One comment on the video of his interview read, “Thank you Matt Damon for helping people lose their money.”
Other fans in the comment section were also far from impressed with Damon’s explanation.
How Matt Damon Missed Out on a $250 Million Payday
It’s tough to draw parallels between making bad investments and turning down a movie role, but like many big-time crypto investors, Damon also made a bad financial decision that led to him missing out on as much as $250 million.
The Oscar-winning star was offered a role in James Cameron’s Avatar and the proposal supposedly included him receiving 10% of the box office back end. The 2009 science fiction movie ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time with a collection of $2.9 billion worldwide.
Speaking to CNN’s Chris Wallace (via Variety), The Martian star said he desperately wanted to work with Cameron but he had a contract for another Jason Bourne movie and he didn’t want to leave the team of his franchise in the lurch.
