Bitcoin slumps as Facebook bans cryptocurrency adverts
Digital token’s price fell by 10% on Wednesday morning
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Bitcoin’s value has fallen for the second time in two weeks, after Facebook announced it is banning adverts for cryptocurrencies.
The social media giant’s new policy prohibits any adverts that “relate to cryptocurrencies or initial coin offerings (ICOs)”, The Daily Telegraph says.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook’s policy also extends to “binary options trading”, which is “a risky derivative with an all-or-nothing pay-off.”
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The advertising guidelines will extend to the company’s other properties, including Instagram, the news site adds.
In a blogpost, Facebook said: “This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices.”
The social network said it will “revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve”, suggesting the ban on cryptocurrency adverts isn’t permanent.
But the news had an effect on the value of bitcoin, which dropped by 10% to $9,810 (£6,930) per coin on Wednesday morning. The figure is the lowest that the digital currency has been for two months, and “less than half the price it peaked at in December”, says The Daily Telegraph.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The token’s price also fell last Tuesday, after the South Korean government announced a ban on anonymous cryptocurrency trading.