Spain joins India, Singapore to reign in crypto ads promising wild returns

business-standard.com:

With an aim to reign in cryptocurrency ads promising wild returns, Spain has now joined countries like Singapore and India, stressing that the advertising of crypto-assets must be clear, balanced, fair and explain risks to the public.

Spain's National Securities Market Commission has issued new guidelines, to come into force from February 17, that mandates the following warning to be placed on all crypto ads: "Investments in crypto-assets are not regulated. They may not be appropriate for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost".

The aim, said the Spanish watchdog, is to ensure that the advertising of the products offers true, understandable and non-misleading content, and includes a prominent warning of the associated risks.

"This is particularly relevant in the field of crypto-assets as the absence of a complete regulation is a challenge for investor protection," it said in a statement late on Monday.

The new Circular is applicable to crypto-asset service providers when they carry on these advertising activities.

Earlier, Singapore warned cryptocurrency and digital token providers not to promote or advertise their digital tokens via various media platforms to the general public.

In new guidelines, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that digital payment token (DPT or more commonly known as cryptocurrency) service providers should not promote their DPT services to the general public in Singapore.

The new guidelines also apply to banks and payment institutions that offer such services. These will further be expanded to include the transfer of cryptocurrencies and provision of wallet services.

"The trading of cryptocurrencies is highly risky and not suitable for the general public. DPT