Meta hopes the changes will allow more small businesses to grow their audiences and reach a greater cross-section of customers — something that could be instrumental to adoption.
It's about to get easier to run cryptocurrency adverts on Facebook and Instagram.
The parent company of both social media platforms — now known as Meta — has announced that it is expanding the number of regulatory licenses it accepts, explaining:
"The cryptocurrency landscape has continued to mature and stabilize in recent years and has seen more government regulations that are setting clearer rules for their industry."
Meta hopes the changes will allow more small businesses to grow their audiences and reach a greater cross-section of customers — something that could be instrumental to adoption.
A total of 27 regulatory licenses are now been accepted, considerably more than the 3. They include the BitLicense, as well as accreditation issued by the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, Hong Kong's Securities and Future Commission, and the U.S.-based Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — known as FinCEN for short.
Advertisers who have already been given the green light to promote their wares on Facebook and Instagram won't be affected by the changes, and written permission will still be required for crypto exchanges, lending platforms and wallets — alongside firms that offer mining hardware and software.
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An Ongoing Battle
This is a significant move from Meta, and helps to quell some of the uncertainty surrounding advertising for crypto businesses.
Back in August, Google also relaxed its rules — opening the door for crypto exchanges and wallets in the U.S. to promote their products and services as long as they meet the tech giant's requirements.
Some hurdles do remain. Initial coin offerings are still prohibited, as are endorsements featuring celebrities and DApps that fall outside of regulation. It's hard to see how these particular restrictions could be relaxed, and it could prove especially problematic for the ever-growing world of decentralized finance.
Cryptocurrency advertising has been something of a battleground in recent years. Some politicians in the U.K. have recently called for it to be banned altogether after billboards for the Floki Inu memecoin were plastered on buses and Underground trains in London.
Tech giants have also been struggling to contend with a plethora of scams on their platforms. Many appear to be endorsed by A-list celebrities and entrepreneurs, giving unsuspecting victims a false sense of confidence.
Crypto companies have also been left exasperated after their content, and in some cases their accounts, have been abruptly pulled down from sites including YouTube — sparking allegations of censorship.
