Grayscale Distances Itself from Fox News Shooting Controversy
After its three-week-old ad aired during a controversial TV segment, Grayscale, a major crypto asset management firm owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG), has distanced itself from the FOX News program in question.
Grayscale made their decision known via a tweet after their ad was aired on a prime-time show during which the host Tucker Carlson shared his opinion on the Kenosha shooting that saw two people killed and one injured. The suspect was arrested on August 26, less than a day after the shooting.
Carlson, as reported by CNN, allegedly suggested that the shooting by a 17-year old was done to maintain order during a Black Lives Matter protest. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?,” he asked, thus sparking a series of comments from the media world.
In response, Grayscale tweeted,
“It came to our attention that one of our ads erroneously ran during a TV program last night that is absolutely not aligned with our values or what we stand for. We’re investigating how this aired outside of our media buyer’s guidelines to ensure this does not happen again.”
This position suggests that the firm might pull its ad support from the show.
The Grayscale ad aimed at “brrring crypto to the masses,” as noted by Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert has been aired on CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, and FOX Business.
Days after the commercial began airing on August 10, Silbert declared that the company had its largest fundraising week in which USD 217 million were invested into the Grayscale funds. Silbert opined that this milestone was achieved probably because people liked the commercial.
Meanwhile, shortly after the Grayscale TV ad began airing, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital debuted a full-page bitcoin-focused ad on the Financial Times Newspaper. As reported, Silbert didn’t seem to mind the competition, simply commenting “Love it” with a picture of the ad on Twitter the same day.
