U.K. financial regulators have announced an 11 million pound digital marketing war chest to warn people about the dangers of crypto investments.
UK FCA will spend £11M to warn people about investing in cryptoNEWS
The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) created an 11 million pound ($15.2 million) digital marketing campaign to warn citizens about the risks associated with crypto investments.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, made this known in a draft speech for the agency’s webinar titled “Our Role and Business Plan” delivered on Thursday.
Detailing the FCA’s decision to create the campaign fund, Rathi stated that the U.K. regulator is concerned about the increasing adoption of crypto investment among the younger demographic.
According to Rathi, “more people are seeing investment as entertainment” and that such irrational behavior may lead to significant losses on their part:
“This is a category of consumer that we are not used to engaging with: 18 to 30-year-olds more likely to be drawn in by social media. That’s why we are creating an £11m digital marketing campaign to warn them of the risks.”
According to Rathi, the risks involved in crypto investments are “stark,” with the FCA boss restating the agency’s popular refrain that people should be “prepared to lose all their money” if they invest in cryptocurrencies.
Related: UK advertising watchdog classifies crypto ads as ‘red alert’
The FCA’s digital marketing campaign is coming on the heels of actions taken by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority against crypto ads that are deemed “misleading and socially irresponsible.”
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the U.K. ad watchdog agency ordered crypto exchange platform Luno to halt its “time to buy” Bitcoin (BTC) advert. Earlier in July, the advertising regulator announced a crackdown on cryptocurrency-related ads, which the body described as a “red alert” priority.
Apart from the crypto warning campaign, the FCA boss also stated that the agency will continue to focus on robust examinations of “financials and business models” for operators in complex markets like cryptocurrencies, especially in the area of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance.
A failure to retain $31,000 would mean that $29,000 and then $24,000 are on the menu, says Michaël van de Poppe.
Bitcoin price tumbles to ‘final support’ as trader warns of $24K BTC price targetMARKET UPDATE
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to its “final support zone” above $31,000 on July 15 as a low grind downward brought fresh predictions of a BTC price crash.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
Binance debacle spreads as $32,000 falls
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting fresh local lows of $31,550 on Thursday.
The pair had made little progress overnight, falling further as Italian lawmakers said that major exchange Binance was unauthorized to trade in their jurisdiction.
The latest in a series of setbacks for the exchange, a spokesperson nonetheless told the mainstream media that its operations were unaffected by the announcement.
“We take a collaborative approach in working with regulators and we take our compliance obligations very seriously,” the spokesperson commented, quoted by Reuters.
As such, there remained little cause for optimism among spot traders. For popular trader Michaël van de Poppe, $31,000 represented Bitcoin’s last hope of avoiding a more series dip.
“Bitcoin didn’t hold the $32.4K level as support and dipped lower, through which it’s facing the final support zone to hold (the $31-31.5K region),” he summarized earlier on the day.