Impact of Google's New Advertising Policy on Crypto Firms
From 03 August 2021, and as announced on Wednesday 02 June 2021, Google will update its policy on financial products and services. This new policy will replace the current one, which has governed crypto ads since September 2018. This change is driven by strong criticism accusing Google of failing to properly handle cryptocurrency ad fraud, particularly by April 2020, through YouTube, one of its companies, which allowed the marketing of cryptocurrency scams. The latter has also been prosecuted, and Google has been reprimanded for banning crypto ads while allowing fraud schemes to promote their platforms without restriction.
The question then arises: what will be the impact of such a policy on companies offering cryptography services? This article tells you about it.
Presentation of the new cryptography policy
In March 2018, the American giant, which still followed in the footsteps of Facebook, then followed by Twitter, revealed its intention to ban cryptographic type ads in order to protect Internet users from fraud and other scams, but also to preserve its reputation as a secure platform . Scott Spencer, Director of Google Advertising told CNBC, “We don't have a crystal ball that lets us see what the future holds in cryptocurrency, but we've seen enough harm and risk for consumers to know we need to address this. subject with extreme caution ”.
Three months later, and faced with the backtracking of Facebook which now allowed "the dissemination of ads promoting crypto currencies, by pre-approved advertisers" (except for ads relating to derivatives and ICOs), Google revised its financial products and services policy in an official document which stated that "The Google Ads policy on financial products and services will be updated in October 2018 to allow regulated foreign exchange exchanges to advertise in the United States and in Japan. […] Advertisers will need to be certified by Google for the specific country in which their ads will appear. Advertisers will be able to apply for certification once the policy is launched in October ”. That is, advertisers offering cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets targeting the United States could advertise their products and services when they meet certain requirements, and are certified by Google. But in order to better combat scams, and to extend the scope of its oversight over advertisements regarding cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, a new update will come in this final half of 2021.
Among the new requirements to be met, the tech giant explained that advertisers can be accredited by registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) "as a money services business and with at minus one state as money transmitter ”. Alternatively, advertisers must be registered with a federal bank or a state bank, or may be "a federally or state chartered banking entity". Also, they will have to request a certificate again (the certificate request form will become available from July 8) from Google, because all current certifications will expire on August 3.
Direct consequence on crypto companies
With this new update, legitimate companies that saw themselves put in the same basket as obscure companies, will be able to wash away this bad image. However, the accounting bill may be salty for advertisers, if we take into account the idea that Google hopes to boost its advertising revenues a little more.
In addition, despite the boost that the upcoming advertising policy will generate, the crypto world remains constrained due to the promotion of cryptocurrency buying, selling and trading being prohibited. Better, Google will not allow the use of advertising destinations that group or compare issuers of crypto-currencies or related products. It goes without saying that the new policy would ban investment advice, portfolios and fundraising in cryptocurrencies (known as initial ICO coin offerings), trading protocols. DeFi, cryptocurrency loans, initial DEX offerings, celebrity endorsements, token cash pools, and dApps not regulated.
If in any case, the new policy is expected to help reduce crypto scams and projects related to using the tech giant's platform, opt for anyway. VPNs that go well with Windows to benefit from a reasonable level of security.
