Is the world ready to open its doors to cryptocurrency advertising?

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This year, after Tesla invested $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, for the first time in history, the cryptocurrency’s market cap reached $ 1.4 trillion, officially overtaking Google stock. Although the cryptocurrency industry has grown over the past couple of years, regulations and bans given to promoting cryptocurrency still make it difficult to advertise crypto.

Of course, Google’s changes that go into effect on August 3 will ease the restrictions, allowing for advertising of cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges. Yet, we know that crypto advertising regulations are not equal from country to country. Is the world finally heading towards cryptocurrency adoption, or are the barriers still strong?

Crypto Advertising Bans and Restrictions: A Brief Recap

Until 2018, advertising of crypto projects was officially allowed on most advertising platforms. However, in March 2018, Google, Facebook and Twitter banned such ads. After that, no advertiser, including legal firms, could advertise crypto-related projects or offer to buy tokens through an ICO. Facebook, in turn, called the crypto products deceptive because many of them were fraudulent. A little later, in September 2018, Facebook and Google partially lifted the ban, allowing the advertising of cryptocurrencies and related projects by pre-approved advertisers in the United States and Japan. In 2021, Google again eased restrictions on crypto advertising.

The arrival of big investors, like Tesla and Square, who bought millions of bitcoins this year, has apparently prompted the advertising world to re-evaluate its approach to crypto projects. This year, the oldest bank in the United States, BNY Mellon, will also begin working with cryptocurrencies, offering to store, transfer and issue cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset management clients. Mastercard also plans to authorize cryptocurrency transactions in 2021. Finally, Visa, in cooperation with cryptocurrency startup BlockFi, announced the release of a credit card that will offer bitcoin cashback in the United States. .

Different regulations define different rules of the game

Some countries like China, Russia, and Colombia have banned Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies completely, which covers everything including use, investment, and promotion. In China in particular, where the hype has turned to crypto fear, the government has put in place various restrictions, making crypto-related advertising more difficult.

While Japan has always been more crypto-friendly, crypto advertising on certain social media and messaging platforms is also prohibited here. In Japan, as in many other countries, the crypto industry is currently a self-regulatory body. As a representative from Yahoo Japan explained, search engines must continually review policies related to the ever-changing crypto regulatory climate.

The United States has a rather positive view of cryptocurrencies, employing the Department of the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and others. in the regulation of the sector. At the same time, even the very definition of cryptocurrency varies from entity to entity, let alone their positions and policies regarding application and advertising.

As far as the EU is concerned, there was not a single regulation for the industry until January 10, 2020. However, recently the National Anti-Money Laundering Directive was established for EU countries, placing many companies in new conditions where they have to register. with financial authorities and report to financial intelligence units.

How Global Regulations Affect Crypto Advertising

At present, in most countries, advertising is not regulated in collaboration with the financial authorities. Regulators across countries are also not rushing to establish strong restrictions on crypto advertising as the market is constantly changing and the possible benefits of cryptocurrencies are still being debated. Thus, it is impossible to predict exactly how crypto advertising will be regulated, especially at the level of each platform. One tech giant can impose strict restrictions, while another can allow crypto advertising but with clear rules and requirements.

As we’ve seen over the past few years, Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and other major ad platforms have adopted varying levels of crypto ad restrictions. The good news is that restrictions are loosening right now. Other than that, crypto advertisers in this niche can still rely on alternative platforms and traffic sources, which mitigates the possible risks of being banned or blacklisted.

If the authorities in a particular country develop consistent guidelines and establish an official statute for crypto products, I think platforms will be more likely to relax bans and restrictions on advertising. According to Metro, “Christie Dennehy-Neil of the Internet Advertising Bureau, a UK business organization, said major online platforms often introduce policies that take” a broader judgment than advertising “to protect their reputation.

In the future, each country could develop industry-specific rules for advertising crypto products, because without these standards and regulations, ad service providers have to act on their own intuitions.

Where do we go from here?

Despite growing global adoption among businesses and investors, cryptocurrencies and commodities still appear to be emerging in terms of regulation in the United States and the rest of the world. The positive trend at this point is that some countries are already transposing crypto advertising regulations into their laws, which will help ad technology providers who have so far been left to their own discretion. It is difficult to create long term strategies to promote crypto projects. Nonetheless, the bans are gradually decreasing so marketers can watch for rule changes while advertising on niche-specific platforms and embracing alternative traffic sources.

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