The guidelines were done after consultations with industry stakeholders, government, and financial regulators.
India’s Advertising Stands Council of India (ASCI) has released a set of guidelines governing crypto or virtual digital assets-related advertisements. According to the new policies which will be applied in April, advertisements must not appear in the public domain unless they comply with the new guidelines.
All ads for VDA products and VDA exchanges, or featuring VDAs, must now carry the following disclaimer: “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.”
“Advertising for these products has been very aggressive over the past few months. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) noted that several of these advertisements do not adequately disclose the risks associated with such products,” said the ASCI, adding that the new policies were intended to “safeguard consumer interest, and to ensure that ads do not mislead or exploit consumers’ lack of expertise on these products.”
The guidelines additionally state that the words “currency,” “securities,” “custodian” and “depositories” may not be used in advertisements because consumers associate these terms with regulated products.
