Spanish national watchdog tightens grip over Crypto promotions

Spain is tightening it’s grip over influencer’s and celebrities on the promotions of Cryptos as the country is finding it hard to keep users safe from the unregulated financial market.

In a first move for the EU, Spain’s security commission have been given a green signal to regulate the crypto advertising market and investment propagation in the digital market.

The measures taken, were introduced in the country’s official journal on Monday. The measures will take impact in a month’s time. They require influencer’s and their sponsors to inform authorities in advance of any such promotions and warn users about it’s potential risks, otherwise face penalties.

The new powers for the Spanish watchdog come after its November conflict on Twitter with Spanish football legend Andrés Iniesta over his paid promotion of Binance, the world’s greatest cryptocurrency exchange, when the commission told the World Cup winner it was his obligation to advise public regarding crypto risks.

Last year in November, football stars Jiménez, Rodríguez and Suárez did a tweet in favor of Binance as well.

The security commission urged celebrities and influencer’s to “take care” about recommending “investment in unregulated products that have additional risks to the public”. “All this led us last night to say to Iniesta, whom we admire and who has brought us great joy, please, before recommending this, tell your followers of the risks; this is also your responsibility,” the watchdog said.

“We are exceptionally amped up for how this will bring some order to how crypto advances, through traditional media as well as through influencer’s,” Rodrigo Buenaventura, the head of watchdog, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

This is a new landscape, for ourselves as regulators and for users, therefore there will be some friction between parties. However, that generally happens when you decide to regulate something that wasn’t controlled previously.”

This is not the first time celebrities have come under radar of financial watchdog for misleading crypto promotions. Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather are accused of misleading crypto promotions as well. Other EU countries such as, French Finance ministry late last year gave a unit the role of investigating online crypto advertising and promotions by celebrities. A French reality TV star was fined about €20,000 in July for “misleading commercial practices” after posting a Bitcoin trading site advertisement on Snapchat.

Source: Financial Times

Original link: Your go to Crypto place