Crypto Exchange Coinbase's Website Crashes After Screening QR-Code Super Bowl Ad

Global cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's website crashed just seconds after screening an ad displaying a QR code in its Super Bowl debut.

The 60-second commercial showed a colorful QR code bouncing, which once scanned redirects first-time users to Coinbase's promotional website, offering a promotion of $15 worth of free Bitcoin and a chance to enter a $3 million giveaway, valid until Feb. 15.

Coinbase reportedly spent 150 Bitcoins - an estimated $14 million - for the unique ad. As soon as the commercial was featured, a huge influx of traffic led to the crashing of the website.

However, Coinbase Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee announced Monday that the platform is now up and running.

"Coinbase just saw more traffic than we've ever encountered, but our teams pulled together and only had to throttle traffic for a few minutes. We are now back and ready for you at http://drops.coinbase.com. Humbled to have been witness to this," Chatterjee said in a tweet.

Since the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched broadcasts on television every year, crypto companies have vied to showcase their ads there. FTX Trading and Crypto.com have also showcased their ads during the games.

Super Bowl is shown on more than 225 TV stations, broadcast on about 450 radio stations and watched in nearly 180 countries globally. The official channel broadcasting this year's Super Bowl 56 game NBC announced last week that all Super Bowl ad time slots had been filled.