TL;DR Breakdown
- Crypto firms can now advertise on Google
- Search engine still under fire for double standard allegation on crypto ads
Number one online search engine, Google has lifted a ban placed on crypto exchange firms and other sister companies from advertising on its platform.
Google announced in the afternoon on Wednesday that starting from August 3, advertisers who wish to promote crypto services and product on its platform would be able to do so provided they meet certain requirements and are ultimately certified by the search engine giants.
The light requirement involves that such crypto firm has to be registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or a federal or state chartered bank entity,” “comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state or federal level” and “ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies.”
The new certificate is to replace the ones used back in 2018, almost three years ago when the search giants stopped crypto firms from using Google ad services.
Google caveat for crypto ads
Despite lifting its ban on crypto ads, there are certain restrictions put in place before crypto ads can go public.
Many institutions are still not able to advertise as ads for initial coin offerings, DeFi trading protocols, or otherwise promoting the purchase, sale, or trade of cryptocurrencies or related products are prohibited. “initial DEX offerings, token liquidity pools, celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements, unhosted wallets, unregulated DApps are also still on the blacklist.
This raises the same dust as it did in 2018 when several crypto players decried the policies as unfair.
Google during that year did not have it easy with the crypto industry such that it blacklisted “Ethereum” as a word during the year. However, scam project still slipped under its nose amidst all the stringent regulations.
YouTube, a subsidiary of Google was dragged to court for this as the platform was used largely by crypto scammers and they were not caught despite harsh policies on crypto project.
