London is now home to a record number of bitcoin and crypto-related advertisements, and many are calling for a ban on such promotions as they feel the crypto space is far too risky.
London Is Seeing an Influx of Crypto Advertisements
Crypto assets are largely unregulated in the United Kingdom, and there is much concern in London and other parts of the country about the volatility associated with these assets. In addition, many fear that people will become addicted to crypto and experience financial harm along the way.
Transport for London (TFL) is a subway system that many residents of the city use to get from point A to point B. These cars often feature a wide array of ads for crypto assets or companies, seemingly going against a promise made by Sadiq Khan – the mayor of London – to ensure all gambling advertisements come to an end.
While Khan made this promise over nine months ago, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office commented that it has yet to be enacted. Sian Berry – a former co-leader of the Green Party – now works as a London Assembly member, and he’s urging Khan to move forward and keep his word to the people of the city to ban all crypto and gambling ads. He says:
Investment bubbles have always worked by dragging in more and more inexperienced suckers towards the end of the cycle. That’s the stage at which some of these projects may be at with all this public advertising. The risk is that they draw in people who are more likely than not to lose money, which is closely equivalent to gambling, and I think these promotions should be banned by Transport for London in the same way. People are struggling right now, and they may have taken blows to their life chances. They may have lost livelihoods or homes and be susceptible to get-rich-quick schemes. Is TFL doing proper checks to establish whether these are legitimate companies?
A spokesperson for the TFL subway system says that all cryptocurrency advertisements featured on the subway cards have disclaimers saying that crypto is not regulated in the U.K., nor should traders ever expect the value of their assets to stick. TFL also says that it does a thorough check of all crypto advertisements before they are put up in the cars, and many have been rejected if they contain language that is questionable or has been deemed inappropriate by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
It’s Important to Educate Traders
In an interview, Dan Moczulski – managing director of e-Toro UK – explained:
e-Toro fully supports measures, including regulation, designed to protect and educate investors about crypto and other financial asset classes.
Several crypto firms looking to advertise have also emerged to claim that the dangers surrounding crypto investing are consistently made clear in the advertisements they propose.
