Bitcoin Slumps to One-Month Low After Google Plans Cryptocurrency Ad Ban

March 14, 2018-7:33 am Stevie Markets-Economics 0

The Street

Google will follow Facebook in banning ads for digital currency trading on its platforms as regulatory oversight in the $360 billion market continues to tighten.

Bitcoin prices fell to the lowest levels in a month Wednesday after Google said it would ban ads for initial coin offerings and digital currency trading platforms as regulatory oversight in the global cryptocurrency market tightens.

The move, which is set to take effect in June, follows a similar decision by Facebook and suggests regulatory pressures are starting to inhibit the marketing potential for traders and investors in the $360 billion market for global cryptcurrencies.

In June 2018, Google will update the Financial services policy to restrict the advertisement of Contracts for Difference, rolling spot forex, and financial spread betting,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, ads for the following will no longer be allowed to serve: Binary options and synonymous products; Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice.”

Bitcoins were marked at $8,713 each on the bitstamp exchange in Luxembourg, which feeds prices into the CME Group futures contract, after hitting a one-month low of $8,610.57 earlier in the session.

Last week, the Bank for International Settlements, which acts as a quasi watchdog for global central banks, warned that “any step towards a possible launch of a (central bank digital currency) should be subject to careful and thorough consideration”.
Earlier this month, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said cryptocurrencies were “failing” and urged a global crackdown on the $450 market in order to align them with the broader financial system.
Carney, a long-time critic of digital currencies, addressed the question of their ability to replace traditional money during a speech in Edinburgh, Scotland, arguing they were proving to be a poor way to store value and that the average daily volatility of the top 25 cryptocurrencies was 25 times higher than U.S. equity markets and were exhibiting “classic hallmarks” of a bubble.

Carney’s comments followed a report from the Wall Street Journal Thursday that said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had issued subpoenas linked to its probe into so-called initial coin offerings, a process in which companies raise money through the sale of new digital coins, which some studies suggest hit $5.6 billion last year and at least $1.6 billion over the past two months.

“I think our Main Street investors look at these virtual currency platforms and assume they are regulated in the same way that a stock is regulated and, as I said, it’s far from that and I think we should address that,” SEC chairman Jay Clayton told lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 6. “Those who engage in semantic gymnastics or elaborate re-structuring exercises in an effort to avoid having a coin be a security are squarely in the crosshairs of our enforcement provision.”

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