Google will Ban Cryptocurrency Ads From June
Google has changed their minds about its advertising policy affecting a wide range of financial products and services that it will no longer serve cryptocurrency-related ads. The move follows the lead from Facebook which announced in January that it would no longer accept crypto advertising.
The update to its financial services policy comes into effect in June and will hit a wide range of products and services, with the primary focus of the statement being contracts for difference (CFDs), rolling spot forex, and financial spread betting.
This sudden change of minds probably comes after FBI and Securities Commission pressured them, the policy update relating to crypto reads:
“In addition, ads for the following will no longer be allowed to serve:
• Binary options and synonymous products
• Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice)”
CFDs, binary options and spread betting are all legitimate financial products but are highly risky. CFDs are banned in the US but widespread in the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere.
In the UK CFD and spread betting brokers have offer markets in crypto and has driven a significant increase in revenues across the sector. CFD brokers typically allow customers to trade on margins of 30 and in some cases up to 150 times deposit. Gains can, therefore, be massively magnified, but so can be the losses.
Google’s updated policy also bans “cryptocurrencies and related products” from aggregators and on affiliate networks.
The ban extending to crypto exchanges and wallets will certainly harm many legitimate businesses.
However, there may be winners from the new policy. Google did not indicate how much money it would be losing because of the ban, but those ad networks that continue to run crypto ads will probably be big beneficiaries, unless of course they also follow suit, either voluntarily or through compliance with future regulatory requirements.
There is a big problem with Crypto-jacking ads as well, where malicious code is hidden on websites or in ads to take control of the processing power of a computer to mine crypto, is growing exponentially. Google said it has taken 130 million such ads.
Google’s latest “bad ads” report said it had removed 3.2 billion ads in 2017 for breaking its policies, am 88% increase on the previous year.
In addition, 320,000 publishers were removed from its ad network and 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps blacklisted, the search engine and online advertising company reported Wednesday.
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