Facebook Softens Ban on Cryptocurrency Ads

Six months into Facebook’s total ban of all cryptocurrency advertisements on its platform, the company seems to be softening its position as it now allows some controlled advertisement of cryptos.

Facebook shocked the crypto community at the beginning of the year when it announced a blanket ban on all advertisements linked to cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). At the time there was growing pressure on the industry as a result of investigations by the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) into a spade of ICOs that the regulatory body deemed dubious.

According to crypto analysts, the social media giant’s banning of crypto related advertisements was as a result of fears of massive fines from a regulator that was out to sanitize an industry that had ‘gone wild’.

Facebook’s latest soft approach to crypto advertisement comes as rumours swirl that the social media giant is about to buy the San Francisco based digital currency exchange Coinbase.

The new move also comes on the heels of one of the largest management reshuffles at the company that saw the creation of a whole new unit tasked with the exploration of blockchain technologies. The new unit is said to be overseen by the company’s Chief Technical Officer, Mike Schroepfer.

There is so much excitement among crypto experts regarding Facebook’s rumoured interest in acquiring Coinbase. Experts are optimistic that such a buy will further legitimize the cryptocurrency market and also reinvigorate the company’s value.

Such optimism is fuelled by the fact that Facebook’s 2 billion users are seen as an opportunity for a far reaching success for any cryptocurrency introduced by the social media giant.

Experts believe that a Facebook coin will outperform all the 1,500 cryptocurrencies currently in circulation worldwide. This, they believe, is because a Facebook token can serve as a real currency as opposed to a mere speculative medium of investment.

Tipped as the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform, Coinbase was founded in 2012 and has over 13 million users spread across the globe. The company is said to have reported revenues in excess of 1 billion (USD) at the end of 2017.

Facebook is an American based social media company. The company that is said to be worth over half a trillion dollars also owns the famous WhatsApp messaging service popular with millennials all over the world.