Some Crypto ads Banned in the UK

The United Kingdom’s Adverting Standards Authority or ASA, has banned more advertisements of crypto. The Advertising Standards Authority is the nation’s advertising regulator. ASA has removed from circulation some advertisement campaigns belonging to a number of top players in the cryptocurrency space.

Developments in Advertising in the UK

ASA issued out a series of violations of its advertisement regulations. It issued these violations on the 15th December 2021. Quite a number of cryptocurrency-related companies were liable. The firms responsible for these violations included eToro, Coinbase, Coinburp, Luno, and Kraken crypto exchanges. Coincidentally, the ASA also revealed violations of a similar nature of Papa John’s pizza services.

Reasons cited

ASA stated that these companies acted irresponsibly. This resulted in the regulator removing their ads. The irresponsibility, they added, was based on how these companies were “taking advantage” of consumers’ inexperience. The rulings by ASA also stated that these companies did not take efforts to show the risk of the investments that consumers could make.

Examples of the Violations

The Ruling Against Coinbase

The regulatory body stated that Coinbase’s Europe offices placed an advert that was misleading to consumers. Coinbase placed this advert back in July of this year. The company’s advert carried text that said that 5 pounds of Bitcoin crypto in 2010 would end up being valued at over 100,000 pounds in January of this same year. The regulator stated that the advert by Coinbase made it seem as though people purchasing Bitcoin at that time would definitely be able to increase the value of their investment over the next decade with the same value. ASA added that Coinbase failed to make clear that how Bitcoin performed did not guarantee that the cryptocurrency would perform like that on an ongoing basis.

The Ruling against Kraken

Kraken also got in trouble with the regulator for an advert that it run in August 2021. The service provider placed this ad as a digital poster at the London Bridge Station. According to ASA, the digital advert did not include an adequate warning as a disclaimer regarding the risks involved. They also stated that the time of the advertisement’s disclaimer was too short at only a 1-second length when the ad run for a full 20 seconds duration.

Ruling Against Luno Exchange

This cryptocurrency exchange placed its advertisement in May. The crypto exchange run the advertisement all over the London Underground network and on London buses in 2021. The advertisement was on posters that displayed an illustration of Bitcoin saying that it was time for onlookers to buy Bitcoin if they were seeing “Bitcoin” in the underground.

ASA Cracking down on the UK Crypto Industry

The authority has been working on closing monitoring and addressing any violations by advertisers in the crypto space. They have not only hunted down but shut down these ads as well. Other than those companies stated above, Coinfloor exchange is another one that had its advertisements banned.

About Coinbase

Coinbase is a company that runs a safe online service for purchasing, selling storing, and transferring various types of digital currency. They state that their mission is to design a financial system for the globe that is open. They hope to lead the world in assisting people to change their digital currency into and out of their domestic currency.

About Kraken

Kraken happens to be one of the world’s longest-running and biggest exchanges of Bitcoin on the globe. The company was established in 2011. It is a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange. It is often ranked as one of the preferred marketplaces to purchase and sell cryptocurrency. The exchange does a number of things including providing market price information to Bloomberg. It also allows users to trade fiat currency and cryptocurrencies.

business cryptocurrency news news