“We are always evaluating our policies to ensure a safe and engaging experience for our Bing users and the digital advertising ecosystem. Because cryptocurrency and related products are not regulated, we have found them to present a possible elevated risk to our users with the potential for bad actors to participate in predatory behaviors, or otherwise scam consumers,” said Melissa Alsozatai-Petheo, advertiser policy manager at Bing.”
High-Profile Schemes
Though some will feel this stifles the industry somewhat, it’s easy to see Microsoft’s perspectives. Ther have been a number of high-profile scams over the past year, one of the most recent being Pincoin and iFan.The two ICOs were run by the same Vietnamese company and ran off with around $660 million. One of the most famous predators was Binnonnect, which shut down in January. Users were promised huge returns via a bot that makes automatic trades and a referral and lending system. The company was forced to discontinue after receiving a cease and desist from US financial regulators. As a result, ads for cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency related products, and un-regulated binary options will be banned. Rather than implementing a case-by-case system, Microsoft has decided on a blanket ban for convenience. The change will come into effect in June with enforcement beginning in late June and early July. Advertisers will have to do what they can to move elsewhere before then or face action. You can find more information on the Bing ads blog.
