UK ASA upholds complaints against ‘misleading’ BitMEX Bitcoin ad

The advertisement watchdog in the United Kingdom, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has affirmed the complaint filed against BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange’s Bitcoin newspaper advertisement.

The authority says that four complaints were filed against the ad. The complaints detailed that the ad was inflating the return on investment for the leading crypto Bitcoin. Therefore, misleading the investors while at the same time. failing to communicate the risks associated with crypto investments.

BitMex Times newspaper feature displayed Bitcoin’s performance over a period of 10 years. However, according to the ASA:

“The horizontal axis was divided and labeled into six-month units showing dates between January 2009 and January 2019. The vertical axis was labeled ‘Bitcoin Price In US Dollars’ separated by decimal point value increments from $0.0001 to $100,000.”

The statement by ASA continues to say the add:

“Included a footer on the front page of a national newspaper that read ‘Thanks Satoshi, we owe you one. Happy 10th Birthday, Bitcoin’, the graph and text next to it and a full-page article written by the CEO and co-founder of HDR Global Trading Arthur Hayes titled “Two sides of the coin: the bifurcated near-future of money.”

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The announcement by the advertisement watchdog affirmed that the ad was “a clear promotional statement of Bitcoin’s merits and did very little to warn consumers of any risks.” Nonetheless, it said categorically that people who read the text could be misled regarding the value of Bitcoin and its stability. Moreover, BitMEX failed to warn the investors of the risk that come with choosing Bitcoin as an investment.