The UK’s advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned seven cryptocurrency adverts. They also suggest monitoring all the crypto assets. A pizza chain and Facebook ads are also included in this banned list. These ads are promoting a large cryptocurrency exchange.
The regulatory body is concerned that many cryptocurrency ads fail to fully convey the risks of investing. For this reason, they said that it is very important to monitor all crypto assets including Bitcoin is a “red-alert priority”.
The ASA explained the reason for this ban. They said that these ads are “banned for irresponsibly taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience and for failing to illustrate the risk of the investment.”
One of the banned promotions was offering consumers “free Bitcoin worth £10”. The advertisement was telling its audience, “Save £15 when you spend £30 or more & get £10 worth of Bitcoin from Luno!” Promotion such way is against the ASA rules. The firm said that the ads are part of their annual celebration. In 2010, they were trading two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. Now the 10 thousand bitcoins would be worth more than £350m.
The ASA authority found the offer “trivialized”. They mention it as a serious and potentially costly financial decision. They said, “consumers would not have had the time to comprehend the relevant information in the disclaimer, if seen at all, and that it, therefore, was not clear”.