India has been cracking down on crypto advertisements and promotions which seem to be misguiding its residents. The Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI) laid out a guideline that crypto companies must follow. These regulations will help to protect its residents from schemes that are disrupting other countries.
Within the press release, they made it clear that crypto businesses must let clients know that the assets are indeed risky and unregulated. If anything happens to their “digital asset” for example, the client themselves are responsible.
“Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.”
They also noted that the messages have to be clear and concise for the client to understand. This way, a client cannot say that they were misguided through mixed messages.
“In video, the disclaimer should be placed at the end of the advertisement against a plain background. A voiceover must accompany the disclaimer in text. The voiceover should be at a normal speaking pace and must not be hurried. In the case of a long-format video of over two minutes, the said disclaimer should be repeated at the beginning and at the end of the video. The disclaimer must remain on screen for a minimum of five seconds.”
These measures show that India is not taking the inherent risk of cryptocurrencies likely, especially given the fact that the assets are new and the long-term aspect is very much uncertain.
These new guidelines come as a result of aggressive ads being targeted to Indian residents from various businesses within the crypto industry making inappropriate claims.
It seems to be more marketing than substance at the moment. As a means to protect citizens and not ban the entire thing, these were put in place to at least protect vulnerable residents who might want to dabble within this space.
