British market authorities are moving to regulate cryptocurrency memes as part of a larger effort to crackdown on scammers and protect investors.
Britain’s financial services regulator announced new guidelines governing financial services companies and social media influencers that make memes about cryptocurrencies.
The Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement that its new rules are aimed at addressing a rise in online crypto scams.
The new guidelines state that any marketing of financial products, including those expressed in memes, should be fair and not misleading.
The stock market watchdog added that financial social media influencers must seek approval from the regulator before publishing advertisements and memes about any financial products, including crypto.
The Financial Conduct Authority highlighted that, in 2022, it took down more than 10,000 misleading advertisements about financial products and services.
The regulator also said that the use of memes in promoting scams and misleading products is particularly prevalent in the crypto sector.
Promotions using memes to hype crypto investments is widespread in chatrooms hosted by social media companies such as Reddit (RDDT) and Telegram in the United Kingdom (U.K.).
The regulator said it is seeking to ensure that users of online chatrooms and forums are subject to its new rules.
The Financial Conduct Authority said that financial scams across the U.K. and beyond are on the rise as people move online for their banking and investment needs.
In October 2023, the British regulator began to require that firms promoting crypto investing in the U.K. be registered with it.
