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| Cryptocurrency ads spark criticism of Arsenal Football Club |
UK advertising regulators are trying to control the marketing of cryptocurrency and related products. He therefore condemned Arsenal Football Club's sponsorship of fans' chips.
The Advertising Standards Agency said it had investigated two Arsenal ads posted online in August and found them to be irresponsible and inconsistent with UK marketing rules.
Arsenal's decision followed a series of similar actions last week when the number of crypto service companies and the same tokens led to an increase in advertisements for sports fans.
The ASA told the Financial Times that expanding crypto-related items to generally include crypto-assets such as fan tokens is an important part of the New Year's agenda.
This summer Arsenal launched a campaign across their website and Facebook to promote their fan code under the AFC banner.
Fans who wish to purchase tokens can allow their holders to influence the club's official decision. First of all, they need to purchase a cryptocurrency called Chiliz through the Socios crypto platform. The more chips a fan had, the higher their vote weight.
The announcement on the Arsenal website contains certain information, including warnings that the price of fan tokens depends on supply and demand, and therefore may go up or down.
She also said that owners should be aware that they could lose some or all of their joint money. Later, Facebook ads did not include these warnings.
The ASA found that these ads downplayed the importance of investing in crypto assets and were misleading in that they did not highlight the risks of investing.
Cryptocurrency promotion
Arsenal have announced that they will conduct an independent review of the regulator's decision to better understand its current situation.
The club added that they take the responsibility of marketing to the fans very seriously. He also claimed that these products are manual tokens used to encourage fan participation. Therefore, they are fundamentally different from cryptocurrencies.
Although the token is not offered as a financial product. However, the ASA notes that Arsenal should have shown that crypto assets are not regulated in the UK, as this means that these products do not have the consumer protections that come with many regulated financial instruments.
Socios said it has created unique fan codes for more than 40 football clubs. Including Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. It has more than 1.3 million users in 167 countries.
The platform allows crypto enthusiasts to speculate and trade with fan tokens. Chili's is the core business unit of its platform. However, cryptocurrencies can also be traded on major crypto platforms such as Binance and Coinbase.
Although football club revenues have been hit by the pandemic, fan popularity has skyrocketed. According to data aggregator CoinGecko, the total market capitalization of fan tokens is $225 million.