According to some media reports last week, capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that celebrities should not be allowed to endorse cryptocurrencies.
Around two months back, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body of the advertising industry established in 1985, issued a detailed set of guidelines, to be effective from April 2022, for advertisers and celebrities on how cryptocurrencies or any other virtual digital asset should be advertised. The hype that many cryptocurrency exchanges created around these advertisements last year came home to roost, as crypto prices fell sharply this year.
Between November 2021 and now, Bitcoin’s price fell by 47 percent. Ethereum’s price fell by 48 percent. Luna (a crypto coin, not the vintage two-wheeler) lost almost its entire value; its price fell by nearly 100 percent (from Rs 3,535 to nearly zero) in this period of time.
“Investors are moving far away from risky assets like cryptocurrencies as US policymakers tighten the monetary policy. That has pushed equity as well as crypto prices lower,” says Akshaya Bhargava, Founder and Executive Chairman, Bridgeweave, a UK-based fintech firm. He adds, that there are also crypto-specific issues that are contributing to the continued decline, such as Terra’s UST losing its $1 peg and the Luna debacle.
Do your research
A big lesson for investors, who fell for glitzy crypto advertisements by popular Bollywood actors and celebrities last year, is to do your own research. In the last year or so, many investors bought cryptocurrencies for the first time, as crypto prices hit new highs almost every day.
Financial planners call
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