The UK advertising agency has ruled against some money-making ads

On December 15, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent advertising regulator, issued multiple rulings on crypto advertising violations involving six companies including Coinbase, Kraken, eToro, Exmo, cryptocurrency broker Coinburp and the Luno crypto exchange. They also passed a similar judgment against advertising the Papa Johns pizza chain.

The British watchdog bans seven crypto ads in the ongoing raid

The UK advertising regulator has ruled against a number of crypto ads, stating that crypto assets have a red flag. So they ran a number of other crypto-related ad campaigns to promote some of the key players in the industry.

“All seven ads or promotions were banned because they irresponsibly exploited the inexperience of the consumer and failed to present the risk of the investment,” the ruling said.

Regarding the Coinbase case of July 27, 2021, they added the text that said, “£ 5 in #Bitcoin in 2010 will be worth over £ 100,000 by January 2021. Don’t miss out on the next decade – get started today on Coinbase ”. And now the ASA argues that the European branch of Coinbase specifically implies that there will be a similar guaranteed increase in the value of Bitcoin over the next decade. Coinbase Europe has also not made it clear that past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future.

Accordingly, their judgments will be part of a project that will shape specific guidelines in 2022. The ASA said it will also monitor ads for fan tokens and NFTs.

Another ASA ruling against operator Kraken Payward concerns a digital poster for Kraken that was seen at London Bridge Station in August 2021. The watchdog argued that the ad lacked an adequate risk warning as the risk warning was only displayed for a second.

“The risk alert only runs for a second at the top of a 20-second ad and we believe it is providing consumers with a large amount of information that would not be fully read or understood even if seen,” the cautioned Judge companies to take advantage of the lack of consumer awareness of these complex and volatile products.

No fines have been imposed for this case, just a warning that future advertisements must include details clarifying that the value of crypto investments can go up and up and that cryptocurrencies are not regulated in the UK.