The British government is the latest country to strengthen rules around the advertising of crypto-assets as it aims to legislate against misleading promotions. In the same week that Spain issued stronger guidelines around cryptocurrency advertising and Singapore banned their promotion to the public, in Britain new rules will be introduced with the aim of protecting consumers. According to the government’s announcement on the new rules, around 2.3 million people in the U.K. own a crypto-asset despite a lack of understanding of what they have bought, increasing the potential that such products can be “mis-sold”. The government has said its plans to place such advertising under the legislation of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), bringing it in line with standards held around the promotion of other financial promotions, such as insurance, stocks and shares. Describing crypto-assets as “exciting new opportunities” for investment, the British chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak said in a statement that it was “important that consumers are not being sold products with misleading claims.” He explained the need to provide protection but also to support innovation within the crypto-asset market too but said that—following research undertaken by the FCO around misleading ads promoting crypto-products—it was clear there was “potential” to cause consumer harm. Sunak said that measures will include new legislation being introduced around investments and activities—bringing it under the Financial Services and Markets act of 2000, which prevents businesses from promoting financial products without authorization by the FCA or the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

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