ASCI guidelines to aid investor education and transparency, says Crypto industry
The crypto industry has welcomed the new set of guidelines released by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) for advertising virtual digital assets on February 23. Late last year, the industry had faced flak from the government and was criticised for misleading advertisements across print medium, television and social networks.
"There are nuances that need to be addressed as the space is ever-evolving. We will continue to work together with ASCI and other stakeholders to refine them further," said Ashish Singhal, Founder, and CEO, CoinSwitch.
Earlier today, self-regulatory body ASCI mandated that all advertisements for virtual digital assets must carry a prominent disclaimer stating, "Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions."
The 12-point guidelines require the disclaimer to be clearly read out for video ads and prohibit usage of words like ‘currency’, ‘securities’, ‘custodian’ and ‘depositories’. The advertisements are barred from showing minors dealing with virtual digital assets.
Additionally, ads should not show virtual digital assets as a solution to money or personality problems or other drawbacks and should not promise or guarantee an increase in profits in the future.
“We applaud the ASCI Guidelines because we genuinely think that the goal of this sector is foster innovation while protecting their interests. The entire notion is centred on the idea of teaching people about this burgeoning asset class. As with any asset class investment, investors can put their trust in institutions only after doing their due diligence,” said Nischal Shetty, founder of crypto exchange platform WazirX.
“Furthermore, we anticipate
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