Facebook Is Ending Short-Lived Ban on Crypto Ads – With One Exception

Social media giant Facebook is canceling its all-out ban on cryptocurrency ads.

The change was just announced on the company’s business blog:

“In January, we announced a new policy to ‘prohibit ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.’ At the time we also made clear that ‘this policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices… We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve.’

In the last few months, we’ve looked at the best way to refine this policy — to allow some ads while also working to ensure that they’re safe. So starting June 26, we’ll be updating our policy to allow ads that promote cryptocurrency and related content from pre-approved advertisers. But we’ll continue to prohibit ads that promote binary options and initial coin offerings…

Advertisers wanting to run ads for cryptocurrency products and services must submit an application to help us assess their eligibility — including any licenses they have obtained, whether they are traded on a public stock exchange, and other relevant public background on their business. Given these restrictions, not everyone who wants to advertise will be able to do so.”

Although Facebook will continue to ban Initial Coin Offerings, it’s clear that could also change in the future as the company improves its ability to vet and verify reputable projects.

Facebook says it will also continue to gather feedback and may make further tweaks to its policy, if necessary.

Google and Twitter have also declared all-out bans on cryptocurrency, and it remains to be seen if they will follow Facebook’s lead in relaxing the restrictions.