Bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies crash as Twitter joins advertising ban
Twitter started banning cryptocurrency advertising on Tuesday after rivals Google and Facebook announced the same clampdown earlier.
The social network told Reuters that the ban will cover advertising for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales. For Japan, the restrictions will be limited to crypto exchanges regulated by its national financial regulator, Twitter said.
Twitter said it had already been trying to prevent cryptocurrency accounts from “engaging with others in a deceptive manner,” but the restrictions from Facebook and Google prompted it to do the same.
“With the increasing number of ICOs coming to market, it is an impossible task for anyone, much less platforms like Twitter or Facebook, to keep on top of which ICOs and cryptocurrencies are genuine versus frauds… Although certainly ICO advertising must have been a significant source of revenue for Twitter, the repercussions of fraudulent activities just weren’t worth the risk,” Zennon Kapron, director of the financial consultancy Kapronasia, told the news agency.
The majority of top cryptocurrencies were trading lower on the news. Bitcoin slipped five percent below $8,000 on Tuesday, ethereum plunged 10.73 percent to $456, and ripple fell 6.63 percent to $0.57.
The cryptocurrency market was worth less than $300 billion on Tuesday, according to Coinmarketcap – an astounding $525-billion drop from the record value seen in January. The 24-hour trading volume has also fallen more than 70 percent since January.
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