Blog Post

Facebook Bans Cryptocurrency Advertising

by: Connor Sanner February 23, 2018

Table of Contents

Background on Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has been all over the headlines in the past couple of months. If you haven’t heard the word “Bitcoin” before, then I assume you have been living under a rock. Although cryptocurrencies have been on a media frenzy, most people still do not fully understand what they are. To give some background, Investopedia defines a cryptocurrency as the following: “A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its most endearing allure is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation”.

This is a very broad definition scratching the surface of the world that is crypto, but for the purpose of this post it will be sufficient for you understand the major decision Facebook has recently made.

Reason Why Facebook Banned

Digital Marketers seem to have an allure towards cryptocurrencies. It is most likely because as a digital marketer your profession is in a space that most people do not fully understand yet, but provides an immense amount of value. The same can be said about cryptocurrencies. Mark Zuckerberg even seemed keen on the idea of blockchain technology. In his New Year speech he stated that he plans to study encryption and the blockchain to see how they can integrate them into their services. This is why it was so shocking to see Facebook make the executive decision to ban the advertising of cryptocurrencies on the platform.

The cryptocurrency market by nature is not regulated and due to its relatively new existence, people have found ways to manipulate the market. One of the ways people have taken advantage of the space is to create fake business, collect funding, and then disappear. Some of these companies could use Facebook to promote their business. This would, in turn, make Facebook a tool for more falsified information to be spread.

Related: Top Facebook Advertising Hacks

Ever since the election, Facebook’s main priority is to negate Fake News being spread on the platform. This is why I believe they took such a stern ban on the industry altogether. I believe that once Facebook finds a way to identify falsified businesses versus legitimate ventures they will scale back restrictions. But due to the negative spotlight, they are in right now due to the elections, they are not able to take any risks.

Alternative Options to Market Your ICO

Although Facebook is currently of the table for part of the marketing plan for an ICO. There are still many other options to help promote a Cryptocurrency Business.