The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has today (15 December) banned adverts for cryptocurrency from various companies.
They include a paid-for display ad for eToro, a stocks and cryptocurrency trading platform, seen on 27 August 2021 on the Yahoo Finance website.
The ad included text which stated “Invest in the world’s top crypto’s with one click” and “Discover eToro’s unique BitcoinWorldwide offering, a ready-made portfolio, holding the world’s leading cryptoassets”.
ASA said it believes the ad is irresponsible – because it took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity, and misleading – because it failed to illustrate the risk of the investment.
The Agency also banned a paid-for Facebook ad for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, seen on 27 July 2021.
It included text which stated “£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”.
Under the heading “coinbase”, a list of bullet points included text which stated “Simple and easy to use”, “Never been hacked” and “Trusted”.
Under the heading “The Competition”, a list of bullet points included text which stated “Unregulated”.
At the bottom of the post, text stated “Buy bitcoin in 5 minutes with as little as £25”.
As well as being “irresponsible”, ASA also argued that the claim that Coinbase’s competition was “unregulated” was misleading because it implied Coinbase were regulated for cryptocurrency services.
And, it said, the claim “£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” was misleading because it implied there would be a similar guaranteed, increase in Bitcoin value over the next decade.
It also did not make clear that past performance was not necessarily a guide for the future.
Meanwhile Papa John’s got into hot water over a promotion on its website and in a Twitter post.
The website https://www.papajohns.co.uk/, seen in May 2021, stated “FREE BITCOIN WORTH £10” and “Save £15 when you spend £30 or more & get £10 worth of Bitcoin from Luno!”
The Twitter post on Papa John’s Twitter page, posted on 14 May 2021, stated “We’ve partnered with @LunoGlobal to offer FREE Bitcoin worth £10 for every pizza bought via our ‘£15 off when you spend £30’” and “TURN PIZZA INTO £10 WORTH OF BITCOIN”.
ASA challenged whether the ads were irresponsible because they took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity and “trivialised investment in cryptocurrency”.
Luno Money, Exmo Exchange, Coin Burp, and Payward (trading as Kraken) also had various crypto ads and promotions banned.
