Those with more than 100,000 followers must add crypto risk warnings
Spain is enacting regulations governing how influencers, sponsors, and others promote cryptocurrencies. Before plugging crypto assets, influencers and other advertising in the country with more than 100,000 followers must notify the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) at least ten days in advance.
They might face fines of up to €300,000 (about $342,000) if they don’t follow the restrictions, which take effect on February 17th.
Influencers must disclose whether they are compensated for promoting cryptocurrency. If that’s the case, they’ll have to issue clear and unbiased warnings about the dangers of cryptocurrency, including that investments are unregulated.
The guidelines cover companies that promote crypto assets and the PR firms they hire.
“There would be a backdoor to circumvent regulation if influencers were not covered,” says the author, “Rodrigo Buenaventura, the CNMV’s president, told the Financial Times. “This is uncharted territory for both of us, and there will be friction, as there always is when rules are imposed on something that has never been governed before.”
It is believed that this is the first time such standards have been implemented in a European Union country.
The European Union has failed to reach an agreement on regulating bitcoin across the EU. Meanwhile, as Buenaventura points out, member nations address some crypto-related issues, such as how they’re presented.
Some influencers have gotten into trouble after promoting crypto assets and associated products. French authorities fined a reality TV celebrity €20,000 ($22,800) in July for “misleading commercial practices” in connection with a Snapchat ad for a Bitcoin trading service. This month, a class-action complaint listed Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather as defendants, accusing them of participating in a “pump and dump” operation.