The Central Bank of Poland has admitted to funding anti-cryptocurrency campaigns on social media, specifically Polish Youtuber Marcin Dubiel and his Dec. 2017 video, “I LOST ALL THE MONEY?!,” Polish news portal money.pl reports.
The social media campaign against crypto was carried out by Central Bank of Poland in conjunction with Polish Youtube partner network Gamellon, Google Ireland Limited, and Facebook Ireland Limited, allocating about 91,000 zloty (around $27,000) for producing anti-crypto content.
Money.pl reports that the Central Bank’s campaign also had videos published on the Planeta Faktów (Planet of Facts) Youtube channel, which has over 1.5 mln subscribers. Dubiel’s Youtube channel has over 900,000 subscribers.
Dubiel’s video makes no mention of the paid aspect of the Youtuber’s inspiration. Since Dec. 8, 2017, the Dubiel’s digital story of a young man who invests all his money in crypto only to lose it all has amassed over 500,000 views.
The description of the video contains the hashtag #uważajnakryptowaluty, which is the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and the Central Bank of Poland’s joint website dedicated to warnings against the use of cryptocurrencies.
The clip’s dramatic climax takes place in a restaurant when the main character can’t pay for his date’s meal with his new crypto investment, causing her to throw fiat money at him and storm out in a huff.
While problems with cryptocurrency-related online advertisements have recently emerged, with China allegedly banning all such ads from social media within the country, anti-crypto ads are more unusual.
After officially recognizing both trading and mining of cryptocurrencies in Feb. 2017, Poland seems to have stayed out of the crypto news cycle. However, after Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of a national cryptocurrency, the petro, Poland is reportedly one of the foreign investors willing to trade food and medicine for the new petro currency.
The video ends with the “evil” crypto investor that led Dubiel to ruin laughing while counting his fiat riches.