The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) leans on clamping down on misleading crypto investment ads. Their main focus is on the social media platforms and other online Ads.
The UK ASA told the Financial Times, they will start removing misleading or irresponsible crypto advertisements from this month.
“We see this as an absolutely crucial and priority area for us. Where we do find problems we will crack down hard and fast,” said Miles Lockwood, director of complaints and investigation at ASA.
Lockwood added that the agency identified the cryptocurrency industry as a “red alert” priority within financial advertising. Companies may have to include disclaimers in their advertisements.
The FCA issued warnings to the consumers buying popular crypto products. However, their warnings failed to filter through to most consumers.
In May, the ASA criticised crypto app Luno over an Ad campaign on London public transport. The advertisement contained the tagline: “If you’re seeing Bitcoin on the Underground, it’s time to buy.”
Luno Chief executive Marcus Swanepoel said that they thought they were following the rules. “Honestly, we were under the impression that these ads were OK,” he said. ASA considered it as a “misleading advertisement”.
UK ASA expanding its crypto crackdown
The ASA has generally been reactive in this area, responding to complaints from consumers. It will now actively look for potentially misleading online ads using web scraping and artificial intelligence.
“We do recognise that there are some types of media that we haven’t been able to address fully until now,” said Louise Maroney, who leads financial complaints about the ASA.
The ASA will also target social media influencers, who play an essential role in promoting cryptocurrencies on social media.
Despite ASA’s attention on the crypto ad industry, UK’s financial regulator, the FCA thinks otherwise. The FCA does not believe that advertisements can mislead someone into crypto investments. Last month, the FCA issued a consumer warning notice against Binance Market Limited.
