The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-financial state’s services regulator, has ordered cryptocurrency businesses to cease public promotion.
As defined in Singapore, digital payment token (DPT) companies “should not portray the trading of DPTs [definition slug= “cryptocurrencies”]cryptocurrencies[/definition] in a manner that trivializes the high risks of trading in DPTs, and should not promote their DPT services in public areas in Singapore or through any other media directed at the general public in Singapore,” according to the MAS.
“The general public should not be encouraged to trade DPTs,” the regulator added.
As a result of this ruling, cryptocurrency businesses can only market their services on their own websites, mobile apps, or official social media accounts.
Importantly, crypto firms have been advised not to use third parties to promote their services, such as “social media influencers.”
Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and Paul Pierce were sued last Monday for their participation in Ethereum Max advertising last year.
This isn’t the first time a Singaporean regulator has slammed the crypto business, and it’s also not the first time crypto-related advertisements have been slammed.
Singapore, Crypto, and Advertising
The MAS of Singapore had a run-in with Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, last year.
The regulator placed Binance on the city-Investor state’s Alert List after confirming that the crypto exchange was not approved in August 2021—and added that a “substantial number of comparable enterprises failed to be licensed.”
Binance dropped their application for a license last December.
However, the controversy over crypto-related advertising has spread beyond Singapore’s boundaries.
The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom has cracked down hard on the industry’s advertising activities.
In the last two months, the ASA has prohibited crypto marketing from Coinbase, Papa John’s, eToro, Crypto.com, and Arsenal FC.