Only 54% of the 1,702 notices issued by the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom led to the removal of unlawful crypto advertisements.
The United Kingdom’s financial regulator has requested that crypto projects remove their advertisements targeting the country, yet illegal crypto ads continue to appear.
According to a Financial Times report, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) removed unlawful crypto ads in 54% of the 1,702 alerts it issued between October 2023 and October 2024. The report indicated that the remaining promotions related to cryptocurrency are still up.
The FCA has not yet imposed penalties on companies that have neglected to eliminate crypto advertisements that contravene its regulations. Before going live, digital asset promotions must request approval from the FCA or an FCA-authorized business in accordance with regulations.
The report stated that the FCA has prioritized financial influencers who advocated for their schemes online, despite its capacity to impose fines or initiate criminal proceedings against violators.
Google Ads has made changes to its guidelines to necessitate FCA approval for projects that target the UK with crypto promotions, in accordance with the FCA’s regulations on crypto advertising.
Starting on January 15, advertisers who provide crypto exchange products and services are required to register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in order to promote their advertisements. The search engine advertising platform recently announced that it will permit advertisements for hardware wallets that store private keys for crypto, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or other digital assets, provided that they do not offer buying, selling, or trading services.
For hardware wallets, Google did not specify any additional specifications. On the other hand, the organization reminded its advertisers that they are expected to adhere to the local laws of any region they wish to target through Google’s advertising platform.
One of the initiatives that the FCA is concerned about is Retardio, a memecoin project that is based in Solana. The FCA issued a warning to UK citizens on December 16th, advising them to refrain from engaging in dealings with memecoin.
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