It was one of the missions of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) for a few months. The increase in cryptocurrency management platforms, whether for the purchase or maintenance of them, put the Bank of Spain and the CNMV itself on alert. The publicity, which began to water the marquees of the cities, had transcended from specialized forums to the common world.
The cryptos and their investment began to be a thing for many –Bit2Me already played with its ads in front of the Bank of Spain before the advertising ban–. It was then that the Commission got down to work to regulate the advertising of financial assets that it still does not see favorably. Volatile, anonymous, and related to digital fraud and scams are just some of the adjectives used to refer to them.
The rule, published today and defended along the same lines as the rules that regulate the advertising of alcohol, online gambling or tobacco, precisely defines the rules on the advertising content of the campaigns that have to do with with cryptocurrencies. Outside this group are the utility tokens to be able to buy in a private environment, the NFTs and the White Paper. They emphasize, in any case, from the CNMV itself “that this is not a regulation of new financial or cryptoactive assets since these do not have, to date, any national regulation or European”. It is, clearly, just an advertising application “which is being analyzed with interest from the rest of Europe”.
In this way, and as explained in the circular, the control of cryptocurrency advertising must include clear, balanced, impartial and non-misleading content about the risks of investing in crypto assets. In this sense, they point out that for some time now the advertising that has become popular “has highlighted the beneficial effects of the investment, but not its risks.” To solve this issue, the CNMV requires a text to be added to all advertisements in a visible area, as well as a link to the implicit risks.
“Investing in crypto assets is not regulated, may not be suitable for retail investors and may lose the entire amount invested.”
All those incentive campaigns for advertising the purchase of cryptocurrencies that are massive or not will be subject to these regulations. Only those that affect more than 100,000 people must notify the CNMV in advance in order to verify mandatory compliance with the regulation already in force.
Influencers and sporting events, also under the advertising control of the CNMV
Binance, Coinbase, Bit2Me… They are the classics in the world of cryptocurrency advertising. However, the CNMV goes a little further in its new regulations and refers to influencers or sporting events. At this point they talk about the nuances of advertising itself and its need or not to abide by the new rules.
In this way, they explain, only “those ads that expressly or not expressly encourage the purchase of assets” should benefit from the crypto advertising regulation. Also affected, yes, by the threshold of 100,000 users. There is more talk of isolated cases to study of unitary signature, than a totality before the subjectivity of the cases that are on the table.
Therefore, the simple name of a t-shirt of a cryptocurrency trading company sponsoring a team or event would be left out. In dissonance with the past of sports betting websites that populated the uniforms of first division teams. The case of Iniesta would be included, the most popular at the moment, with his sponsored comments on Coinbase and the benefits of acquiring cryptos. Of course, it only applies to “paid opinions” and in no way to the freedom of expression of influencers. In this sense, they add that the person in charge of the communication to the CNMV does not have to be the influencer himself, any element of the promotion chain would be authorized to legitimize said campaign.
