In June 2018, Google will prohibit online advertising that promotes any content related to crypto-currency, as part of its recently updated financial services policy, which introduces restrictions on several financial products, including CFDs, rolling spot forex and rates on financial spread - all this is considered as products with high risk.
An excerpt from the new Google policy of limited financial products states that, in addition to binary options, the ban applies to crypto-currencies and related content including, but not limited to, initial coin deposits, crypto-currency exchanges, crypto-currency wallets and crypto-currency trading recommendations.
In addition, Google also indicated that aggregators and affiliates using Google ads will no longer be able to place advertising materials related to crypto-currencies. In other words, Google effectively disables advertising related to crypto-currencies on its own website, as well as third-party web resources that use its advertising products.
The ban is intended to be a step towards the effective eradication of fraud in crypto-space, but it is expected to certainly affect legitimate or "regulated" companies offering crypto-exchange services.
Speaking to CNBC, Google's advertising director Scott Spencer explained this step as a precautionary measure to protect consumers. He also mentioned there is no clear prediction on what the future of crypto currency will be, still he declares it may cause enough harm to consumers or potential harm for them to approach this area with extreme caution.
Google's ban follows a similar step from its Facebook advertising competitor, who banned advertisements related to crypto-currencies earlier in January. Facebook blamed "misleading or deceptive advertising policy" adopted by companies promoting original coin offerings or crypto-currencies, thus making a "deliberately wide" change in their own policies that will extend to other platforms owned by Facebook, such as Instagram.
