By: Mike Genna
Unfortunately, it only takes one of us to ruin it for the rest of us. Several multi-billion dollar corporations that account for ad revenue have done away with all advertisements related to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales. Facebook, in hot water amid a congressional hearing with Chief Zuck, probably felt the need to become Congress’ ultimate fawners and issued the first ban in January of 2018. The company now allows crypto exchange advertisements only after they go through a rigorous application process of verifying the legitimacy of their company.
It wouldn’t be for another four months until the world’s largest search engine announced its ban on ALL advertisements including cryptocurrency such as wallets, ICO’s, exchanges, token sales, and trading advice platforms. Google claims that its tendency for banning ads that conflict with its policy is up 88 percent from last year. Shortly after, Snapchat and Twitter followed suit as they banned all advertisements related to ICOs and token sales.
Bear Run
The day of the Internet behemoth announcing that it banned ads for crypto related material delivered a 11.7% drop to the value of Bitcoin. Sentiment remained week on all cryptocurrencies as $200 billion in market capitalization was wiped off the market following May 13th. The bear run lasted until June 24th, where consumer sentiment started to pick up its bull trends once again. I think it is clear to most that the choice to ban crypto ads is in the best interest of companies legal teams, as concrete legislation from the U.S government has not yet make its mark in the industry. What irritates most currency advocates is the over exaggeration of media outlet reporting on the matter. Crypto enthusiasts fear that the media’s constant coverage of negative events greatly attributed to the unnecessarily long bear run.
Less Lost Funding
Perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects to banning crypto ads is helping retail investors avoid fraudulent investment pools. Some investors who participated in token sales over the last year have fallen victim to ICO fraud and lost a combined $550 million. On this note, it is clear why Facebook paved the way for an almost crypto-free ad space, as this is way too much money to go unchecked.
Still, quality ICOs will still find their way through the pipeline to the end user through bounty projects.
In essence, bounty projects are paid advertising to a third party firm who will attempt to the get the word organically; without being dependent on advertising. Bounty projects use all types on social media including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and others to transmit a message from the views of a real person. Bounty projects will be popular amongst blockchain developers who need funding, but will not be able to get it by advertising.
Acting as a Filter
All in all, it may be a good thing for corrupt advertising to come to an end. Now, we can assume that if we see a promising ICO ad that it may be real. This new initiative by multi-billion dollar conglomerates suggests that they’re serious about their customers’ financial safety and that they’re willing to sacrifice a portion of their top line to be ethical.
More importantly, society now has a filter on Initial Coin Offerings and the ones that get through to Facebook, or appear on Twitter will be portrayed with much more credibility than the ones that preceded them.