Google Revisits Ban on Crypto Ads

Months after Google’s parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), enforced a ban on cryptocurrency ads, the tech mammoth has reconsidered its position on the ad restrictions in certain countries. 

In its updated advertising policies, Google said that starting in October 2018, regulated cryptocurrency exchanges will be allowed to advertise in the US and Japan only.

According to the update, advertisers can begin applying for certification once the policies are officially in place next month.

“Advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve,” the update says.

The update further says that the policy will “apply globally” to every account that promotes these financial products. No further details were revealed as to how the new ad policy will go into effect.

When the company initially rolled out its ban in March of this year, Google’s restrictions included everything from initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice. The ban on these ads came into effect in June with most still in place—other than regulated cryptocurrency exchanges.

Social media giants like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) have also taken steps to ban cryptocurrency ads. In June, however, Facebook took steps to reverse its ban, although ICO-related ads would remain prohibited from its site.

Similarly, Twitter”s crypto-ad ban included everything from ICOs to token sales.

“We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community. As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNBC in March. “Under this new policy, the advertisement of … (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally.”

Over a 24-hour period bitcoin rallied 2.08 percent to reach U$6,542.43 as of 5:37 p.m. EST on Wednesday (September 26). It seems like a lifetime ago when the digital currency reached its all-time highs of just under US$20,000 in December of last year. Since then, bitcoin has tumbled roughly 67 percent.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.