As crypto firms ramp up London advertising, regulators are hot on their trail

For the last nine months in central London, if you set foot inside the tube or saw a bus on the street, the chances are you would have seen some kind of crypto advertisement.

New data obtained by The Block via a freedom of information request (FOI) from Transport for London (TfL) highlights a significant uptick in the number of crypto ads scattered across the capital over the course of 2021. 

The push to market crypto — both tokens and the means to buy them — intensified in April as UK COVID-19 restrictions began to ease, with ad volumes ramping up further towards the end of the year. 

Then, last month, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an industry watchdog, issued a “red alert” on crypto marketing. 

In the absence of action by the Financial Conduct Authority, the ASA has been at the forefront of efforts to show a united front against misleading marketing. Despite this mandate, the impact of rulings seems to be largely symbolic and with few material consequences. The regulator has tended to move slowly, only issuing bans on certain ad formats reactively following complaints. 

“While they can’t impose monetary penalties on non-compliant advertisers, the ASA can and does refer uncooperative marketers to Trading Standards, which is the government body for protection against unfair trading,” said Anne Rose, managing associate in the commercial team and co-lead of the blockchain group at law firm Mishcon de Reya. 

She added that Trading Standards has the power to “impose a wide range of sanctions, including monetary fines.” 

So far, however, sanctions have amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist. 

Luno's ad streak

The data obtained by The Block showed that London-based exchange Luno was the capital’s most prolific crypto advertiser, amid a crowded field. The company placed an advert in each tube carriage on the network last year between May 17 and May 30 and again between June 14 and June 27. 

This was when COVID-19 lockdown restrictions had been eased significantly and more people were taking public transport. 

In May, the ASA was able to force Luno to amend its bitcoin (BTC)-focused campaign days before it ended. The ads featured a cartoon image of a bitcoin with the message, “If you’re seeing bitcoin on the Underground, it’s time to buy.”

The ASA said at the time that it found that the placement of the ads meant they were untargeted and “likely to have been seen by consumers who did not have extensive financial knowledge and experience of bitcoin.”

Between December 2020 and December 2021 Luno also splashed out on a raft of other advertising; on the outside of London buses, billboards and posters covering tube walls. 

This publicity has come at a relatively low price for the exchange. Two ad agency officials, who asked not to be identified due to commercial sensitivity, suggested Luno’s London transport campaign over the last two years could have cost the company hundreds of thousands of pounds — a relatively low amount for a high traffic network. 

Advertising on 250 central London buses for four weeks — which is what Luno did — could cost in the region of £100,000 in certain periods, and tube car campaigns potentially cost more than £50,000, they said. Busier periods, such as Easter or Christmas, usually demand higher rates. 

The exchange’s ads have, so far, been banned twice by the ASA. 

Luno was acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG) in September, 2020, for an undisclosed sum. At the time DCG said it would make a “significant financial commitment” to the exchange.

A Luno spokesperson said it sees the UK as a “key market” and that it has used the ASA rulings and guidance to refine its ads. 

“Luno is here for the long term and as such we believe that it is essential that consumers are both protected and educated about the risks. We will continue to work with regulators such as the ASA to achieve this,” they said.

Floki, Puglife and the rest of the pack

The slow move to target crypto ads has meant some lesser-heard-of or now-obsolete tokens were allowed to flaunt their wears before virtually disappearing, without repercussions for potentially dodgy ads. 

The people behind meme token Puglife have seemingly abandoned ship, following a marketing push in June. The Twitter account promoting the token is now a receptacle for retweeting posts about other NFTs and other meme tokens. Its Instagram, which is flush with endorsements from minor celebrities, hasn’t posted since the summer. 

Meanwhile, other companies are waiting out lengthy investigations. In a two-week period in October, Floki bought 300 lift and escalator panels, 300 bus “supersides,” an ad in every other tube car, and 78 walkway wall posters. 

In November, the ASA announced it would investigate the ads, which urged consumers to look to the token if they had not been quick enough to buy into other popular cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin before meteoric price bumps. This has not yet been resolved. 

The ASA also recently upheld a complaint against a one-off Kraken advert in London Bridge station for being “misleading” and taking “advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity.” 

In a subsequent campaign, Kraken took out 533 wall-covering posters over a three-month period between September and December 2021 and 257 poster-sized ads for two weeks spanning September and October. 

The Block contacted Floki and Puglife for comment but did not receive responses by press time. 

The data also revealed other companies that splashed out on London ad real estate over the last nine months, including: Hakuna Matata, eToro, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Coinfloor, BOTs, Win Investing, Gadget Geek, V3 Digital and Hex.