400+ Crypto Ads Found Violating ASCI Guidelines

The Advertising Standard Council Of India (ASCI) has found more than 400 crypto-ads to be potentially violating advertising and promotion guidelines of virtual digital assets (VDAs), and guidelines for influencer advertising. 

In the first five months of 2022, ASCI took up 453 complaints where 419 required modifications, the Economic Times reported.

Interestingly, most complaints were against influencers.  Manisha Kapoor, chief executive of ASCI, also noted that some influencers talk confidently about crypto without fully understanding it. Hence, they create an impression that it is safe and fine to invest in crypto.

Earlier this year, ASCI released a set of advertising guidelines for crypto entities and other virtual digital assets including non-fungible token (NFT) seeking to promote their products and services through advertising in media. One of the regulations mandates crypto entities to publish a disclaimer in every crypto advertisement.

The disclaimer mandated by self-regulatory body ASCI is: “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.” The guidelines came into effect on April 1.

Last year, the crypto exchanges upped the game in advertising and marketing after the crypto market started gaining more momentum in India. The leading crypto exchanges including CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber onboarded Bollywood celebrities as brand ambassadors.

As shared by Kapoor, ASCI is focussing on driving awareness with crypto exchanges, while it will continue to focus on disclosures for payment-based promotions and risks to be called out in the disclaimers.

The influencer ads which don’t talk about the risks are against ASCI guidelines, she pointed out. “We will escalate it to the government in case of no compliance,” she added.

It must be noted that crypto scams are becoming more prominent in India. A recent report by Cybersecurity company CloudSEK estimated that Indian victims have lost up to INR 1,000 Cr in various crypto scams so far.

Under those scams, the company also discovered a number of phishing domains and Android applications, with the keyword ‘CoinEgg’, that were used to dupe the victims. 

Overall, the crypto industry in India remains under pressure with global instability due to the Luna crash, Bitcoin price sliding, coupled with domestic factors such as 30% tax rules on income from VDA transactions, and 1% TDS on all transactions.