The United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is supporting the complaint made against crypto exchange Coinfloor following its publication of a Bitcoin ad in a regional news outlet.
The advertisement, which was published on December 3rd, 2020, in “The Northamptonshire Telegraph”, according to the complaint, was targeting retired people, and it was described as being misleading and socially irresponsible.
The ad had the title “There is no point keeping your money in the bank…” and featured a 63-year-old woman who was describing her decision to invest some of her pension into BTC. The quote reads as follows:
“More and more people are waking up to the savings power of Bitcoin… Today there is no point keeping it in the bank — the interest rates are insulting. […] That is why when I received my pension, I put a third of it into gold, a third of it into silver, and the remainder into Bitcoin.”
The alleged customer of Coinfloor even referenced Bitcoin’s new reputation as “digital gold.”
The ad continued: “To me, Bitcoin is digital gold and it has allowed me to take the steps to secure the cash I already have… Thanks to Coinfloor’s Autobuy service, buying and holding Bitcoin has never been easier…”
The advert was labeled as misleading as “It failed to make clear the risks associated with Bitcoin investments, including loss of capital, and that neither Coinfloor Ltd nor the general Bitcoin market were regulated in the U.K.”
The complaint was upheld on this basis, and ASA mentioned that Coinfloor hadn’t emphasized enough the volatility of Bitcoin.
The ad was also considered to be socially misleading since “It suggested that purchasing Bitcoin was a good or secure way to invest one’s savings or pension.”
ASA also declared that Coinfloor had presented investing in Bitcoin as being a much safer practice than it actually is.
The verdict by ASA is that the advertisement mustn’t appear again in that form and that future Coinfloor ads must specify the fact that BTC investments can decrease in value, mention that both Coinfloor Ltd and Bitcoin aren’t regulated in the United Kingdom, and shouldn’t suggest that Bitcoin represents a secure investment for someone’s pension or savings.