The landscape of cryptocurrencies, globally, far from being reasonably uniform. While a growing list of countries completely ban them, others like El Salvador embrace them with genuine devotion, even despite signs that if they continue to buy Bitcoin, their economy could enter a very compromised situation. Be that as it may, what is clear is that, be it with one approach or another, the regulators are beginning to step on the accelerator in this regard.
And the last example is found within our own borders, because as we can read in the BOE today, Monday, The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) will begin to regulate the advertising of cryptocurrencies, in one more step after several published statements, jointly with the Bank of Spain, warning of the risks associated with investing in crypto assets, which is the name used by the regulator to refer to cryptocurrencies.
During these years the CNMV has warned about crypto, focusing on the complexity, volatility and potential illiquidity of these investments. However, until now their actions had been exclusively informative, this is the first time that a measure has been taken aimed at regulating a specific aspect related to them, in a regulatory framework in which the focus is also placed on everything referring to advertising in which public personalities are counted on to achieve a great reach.
Specific, The CNMV must be informed, by advertisers and companies that sell cryptocurrencies, at least 10 days in advance about the content of campaigns aimed at more than 100,000 people, a figure that would make it necessary to report their actions in this regard to those celebrities who, as Iniesta did a few weeks ago by promoting the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform on their Twitter and Instagram accounts, an action that was disapproved by the regulator.
As we can read in the BOE, it is part of the scope of application of the new regulation:
c) «Mass advertising campaign»: advertising campaigns aimed at more than 100,000 people, using any advertising medium and based on the following measurement criteria based on the information offered by sources widely used in the advertising sector:
– Television: audience of programs in number of viewers.
– Radio: audience of programs in number of listeners.
– Printed media (newspapers, magazines and supplements): number of readers.
– Outdoor advertising (on street furniture, means of transport or other media): estimated number of people who would view the advertising message or, if this estimate does not exist, the number of people recorded in the register of the municipality or municipalities in which install outdoor advertising.
– Digital media and search engines: estimated audience and visitors.
– Social networks: the highest between the number of users estimated in the advertising campaigns and the number of followers of the accounts used.
– Sponsored videos: number of followers of the video broadcaster
With the new regulations, which will come into force in mid-February, the CNMV will be able to monitor advertising campaigns related to investments in cryptocurrencies, and will also have the legal capacity to include warnings about the risks that this type of investment implies in these campaigns. And it is that, like other investments, even the safest ones, are obliged to report their level of risk, it makes no sense that until now the promotion of investments in crypto has escaped having to do so.
Just a few days ago we talked about a somewhat extreme case, that of EthereumMax with Kim Kardashian, and how celebrities should be a little more careful when choosing which actions they participate in. Now, at least in Spain, with supervision by the CNMV, it will be more difficult for such cases to occur, and also advertising messages about investment in cryptocurrencies will be more in line with reality, by having to report on the risks associated, something that personally seems to me to be very good news and a step in the right direction in such a complex context.
