In Brief:
- ASA issued a ban on seven cryptocurrency advertisements in the UK.
- No fines were imposed whereas just cautions were issued.
- This wasn’t the first time UK ASA warned about misleading crypto ads.
On Wednesday, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued a ban on seven crypto ads, stating that they must not appear again and said crypto-assets are ‘red alert.’
Trading platforms eToro and Coinburp, exchanges EXMO, Luno, Kraken, and Coinbase, and promotion from pizza giant Papa John’s were among the seven companies whose commercials were found to have broken the ASA regulations.
Regulators issued cautions that future advertising must include information noting that the value of bitcoin investments can go up as well as down and that cryptocurrency is unregulated in the UK.
As per ASA ads were, “banned for irresponsibly taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience and for failing to illustrate the risk of the investment.”
The ASA noted that its choices are the result of proactive monitoring of crypto asset ads and that they will be part of a longer-term project aimed at producing detailed rules by 2022.
According to one Papa John’s ad, which appeared on the company’s website and Twitter page, stated, “free Bitcoin worth £10″ and “Save £15 when you spend £30 or more & get £10 worth of Bitcoin from Luno!”
The paid Facebook ad for Coinbase said, “£5 in #Bitcoin in 2010 would be worth over £100,000 in January 2021. Don’t miss out on the next decade – get started on Coinbase today.”
ASA considered it misleading as it implied there will be the same increase in bitcoin value as it was previously. Which is not necessarily a guide for the future.
This wasn’t the first time ASA took action on crypto ads in the UK, even earlier in July according to the Financial Times, the UK ASA decided to eliminate the misleading or irresponsible crypto adverts in July.
According to the ASA, businesses should not take advantage of their customers’ lack of knowledge about these “complex and volatile products.”
