Crypto Advertisement Still Unwelcome, How Is the Industry Coping?

Here is an overview of how cryptocurrencies are advertised - or not - in the world right now.

Crypto firms and enthusiasts from Russia, China and South Korea decided not to stand on the sidelines, and in March 2018, the cryptocurrency and blockchain associations of Russia, China and South Korea announced that they intend to file a group action against IT corporations that prohibit the advertising of cryptocurrency projects.

More recently, in August of 2019, JPB Liberty, an Australian litigation finance company filed a $500 billion global lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter over the cryptocurrency advertisement ban.

According to an official statement, cryptocurrency advertising became available for purchase in Japan and the U.S. However, only officially registered American and Japanese crypto exchanges are privileged to use the Google AdWords platform.

In May 2019, Facebook updated its advertising policy, adding an item allowing users to advertise blockchain technologies and educational courses on cryptocurrencies without special permission, as was stated in the blog of the social network.

In order to advertise cryptocurrencies, users still have to get special permission from Facebook moderators.

"In 2018, we made clear this policy was broad - along with our hope to refine it while working to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices. After a thorough review, the policy was narrowed to no longer require prior approval to run ads related to blockchain technology, industry news, education, and events related to cryptocurrency. This update makes good on our commitment, and keeps critical safeguards in place to reduce bad ads and enforce against misleading or scam ads."

"In my view Facebook's own cryptocurrency plans, now known as Libra, were the reason for the Ad Bans in the first place. Facebook was threatened by the rapid development of cryptocurrency/blockchain based competitors offering a better consumer proposition. They chose to engage in an illegal anti-competitive attack on those competitors while they developed their own 'cryptocurrency.' They have only eased it enough that Libra is not itself banned but still block ads from the majority of the cryptocurrency industry."

The most progressive crypto community is Japan, with its quickly developing cryptocurrency market, which contributed to the emergence of the Virtual Currency Girls - a Japanese pop group that popularizes cryptocurrency through songs and dances.

According to The Japan Times, local cryptocurrency exchange BitFlyer first released a TV commercial in April 2017.The cryptocurrency community painfully embraced the ban on advertising their businesses because the online advertising market today is the most popular and profitable, but at the same time, crypto enthusiasts have shown that they can fight for their businesses not only with the help of courts but also through others ways to post information - even the most unconventional.