Google To Ban Cryptocurrency Ads From June

Google will ban online advertisements promoting cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings starting from June. The move follows similar measures by Facebook which banned all advertisements for cryptocurrencies.

As reported by CNBC, the company is updating its financial services-related ad policies to ban any advertising about cryptocurrency-related content, including initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets, and trading advice.

That means that even companies with legitimate cryptocurrency offerings won't be allowed to serve ads through any of Google's ad products, which place advertising on its own sites as well as third-party websites.

Google said in a blog post that it had “updated several policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference (or CFDs)”. The company said it will ban advertisements for “cryptocurrencies and related content” including cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets and trading advice.

The internet-search giant is also restricting ads for financial products including binary options, a risky derivative with an all-or-nothing payoff. Right now, Google queries for terms like "binary options" and "buy bitcoin" produce four ads at the top of the results.

This update will go into effect in June 2018, according to a company post.