- Google will partially lift its crypto ad ban on exchange and wallet ads after 3 years
- Exchanges must be registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business or a federal or state-chartered bank entity
- Advertisers must ensure that their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies.
In an unexpected move, online advertising giant Google announced that it will resume accepting crypto exchange and wallet-related online advertising after previously banning such ads in 2018. Lifting the ban will allow regulated crypto exchanges and wallet providers to purchase ads through Google’s search engine in the US starting from August 3, 2021.
The original ban was announced in 2018 in the wake of rising high-profile coin offerings among other crypto activities that made it hard for Google to differentiate between outright fraudulent ventures and legitimate ones.
Though it’s unclear why Google is lifting the ban now; however, it appears that they think the crypto market hype is skyrocketing, and all the pessimistic talks associated with it have slowly died down.
Regulatory Barriers
The new policy of Google means that platforms offering cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets services targeting the United States market have to be either registered with “FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter” or “a federal or state-chartered bank entity,” to run their ads on the Google search engine platform.
Moreover, advertisers also have to comply with the legal requirements and ensure that their landing pages and ads comply with all the policies of Google ads.
But, ads for most crypto services still remain banned
It may also be noted, Google’s new policy won’t lift the ban on ads for various other crypto products and services like initial coin offering, DeFi trading protocols, and promotion of the sale, purchase, or trade of cryptocurrency or related products. In addition, the tools and services that aggregate or compare issuers of cryptocurrencies or related services also remain on the ad blacklist.
Though the policies of Google around crypto ads have often been conflicting, and many experts have portrayed them as unfair, the new ads policy means that the US-based crypto enthusiasts may soon start seeing crypto ads.
