All week long, the crypto market has been discussing the news on crypto and ICO adverts ban by Google. After the initial rumours, Google has eventually made an official statement about its intention to ban the crypto-related ads, which included ICO, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and even cryptocurrency trading advice. At the end of the week, a Russian search engine Yandex, following its big brother, has also announced the ban of similar adverts. Today, it has become known that Twitter is also preparing to prohibit crypto-related advertisements.
What is standing behind the crypto ads ban by the top companies, and how it will influence the market and crypto community?
Google and Facebook are the leaders in terms of ad placements. When working with these companies, you always face some restrictions and updates. As they are the market leaders, they need to constantly balance between wishes of the advertisers and state acts. For those who have been working with Google and Facebook, the question of banning crypto and ICO ads has only been a matter of time. Almost any ad leading the user to spend money without getting a good or a refund is prohibited. In case of ICO, decentralization (namely, the lack of regulation) played its role. A user who is investing their money has no legitimate rights for getting the funds back. Therefore, we got advertising where a user spends money and gets nothing in return what would serve as a margin for their invested funds. Currently, a token is neither a good nor a guarantee for a refund. And even with the projects that are doing refunds, it is more of an exception than a global trend.
It’s worth mentioning that the very idea of the crypto ads ban originated not from the advertising spaces. I don’t think that someone would be ready to refuse from the faucet that brings lots of money. An active participation of the governments and their attempts to regulate the crypto market lead exactly to the situation we have now. In their will to regulate cryptocurrencies, most governments are searching for loopholes to somehow take over the control.
So, what’s next?
A possible scenario for the further development of these events is the issuance of licenses connected with activity on the crypto market. Such licenses will be issued by the government with exact regulatory policies. Naturally, licenses issuance is a new ability for the governments to charge money from the companies. In their turn, advertising spaces will allow placing crypto-related ads only for companies that have already obtained a license.
If we abstract our minds from crypto, we are watching a similar situation that has happened with the Forex market. At a certain moment in time, the ads related to Forex have been prohibited and enabled only for those companies that have obtained licenses.
Now, let’s get back to the crypto community. To be honest, I am fascinated by these people, how calm and down-to-earth they are. The advertising ban has caused no panic. Moreover, the community is already getting prepared for various restrictions from large companies that are cooperating with authorities. Such crypto ads ban have perceived even a bit positively, as there will be less shady ads in the search engines. Users won’t be confused with scammy headlines. And, most importantly, the product’s promo will get back to its roots — building the community and dialogue with it.
Probably, the community is the most bright and distinctive feature of the crypto market. You cannot buy with ads. Today, a product is not only about the dev teams and transparency, but also about a dialogue with an equal community, not just a consumer.