TeaHe made the year 2021 feel like the year of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was trading at stratospheric levels, making Reddit memes profitable, and everyone from Ayushmann Khurrana to Ranveer Singh advertising crypto in India.
‘This is the future,’ announces CoinDCX on the front page Sunday Times,If not today then tomorrow, something will change,’ Announced CoinSwitch Kuber, ‘This is India’s Crypto Moment’, is a Front-Page Advertisement economic times Reading.
Cryptocurrency exchanges spent Rs 90 crore on television commercials alone during IPL 2021 and World Cup T20. Cryptocurrencies in October 2021 Responsible By volume accounted for 51 percent of all commercials on TV.
And then it all fell apart. Indian government Express Serious concern over the storm of advertisements by cryptocurrencies and how they were ‘misleading’ the youth by being ‘over promising’ and ‘non-transparent’. Shortly thereafter, the Blockchain and Crypto-Asset Committee swore off To turn off advertising until new rules are set in comparison to crypto advertising. The Crypto Influencer universe has now pushed crypto hype into non-monitored subcultures and channels – with memes on Reddit and Telegram and other peer-to-peer platforms.
It wasn’t just the government’s anger that stopped the crypto advertising trail. crypto dream market crashed in the middle of 2022. Bitcoin, which peaked around $67,000, fell to $20,000. The Indian government in March decided to impose a tax of 30 percent and TDS of 1 percent on crypto investments and 70-80 percent decline in India’s trading volume. The first thing to be cut were the marketing budgets of crypto companies.
Crypto exchanges are now taking advantage of social media, internet communities, influencers and even memes to keep the discussion going.
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‘Influencer Marketing’
On February 2022, the Advertising Standards Council of India formulated Guidelines for Advertising of Virtual Digital Assets, which came into force in April. ASCI noted that the advertisement of these assets is not sufficiently informative about the risks associated with investing in such high risk assets. Its guidelines specify that crypto companies should keep the following disclaimer: “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There can be no regulatory recourse for any damages caused by such transactions.” The body also said that virtual assets cannot contain words like ‘currency’, ‘securities’, ‘custodians’ or ‘deposits’. advertisement,
“As an industry, advertising is one of the top five infringing sectors by category. In terms of volume, categories including gaming and VDA contributed 8 per cent each to the total objectionable advertisements in the period April 2021 to March 2022. Overall compliance, including in the digital domain, stood at 94 percent. We have seen advertisers deploying massive influencers,” Manisha Kapoor, CEO, ASCI, told ThePrint in response to an email.
ASCI said it received complaints against 453 crypto-related ads, of which 419 required modifications, most of which came from influencer advertising. He said influencers tend to package crypto as ‘something good’.
Advertising by influencers is a major concern among industry experts, who say there is a lack of compliance by the group, but a lack of government regulation and the specificity of the law are to blame. “The government has also not specified what an influential person is. The law has to be specific, vague statements do not work,” said Amanjot Malhotra, Country Head of Turkey-based crypto exchange, Bitte, explaining why influencer marketing has increased.
Crypto Influencers like Naval Ravikant, Aditya Singh, Sapna Singh, Shivam Chunja, Pankaj Tanwar have more than one lakh followers in India. According to ASCI, only 77 per cent of their advertisements are compliant with the guidelines.
Globally, influencers have been drawn to crypto advertising. Elon Musk was sued for promoting Dogecoin, while Kim Kardashian was fined $1.27 million for illegally brokerage a crypto currency.
As for the government, Indian influencers may also consider paying heavy penalties for misleading advertisements intentionally On this.
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web 3 sub culture
No advertising means no marketing. Crypto exchanges have returned to the subreddits and Telegram channels to continue the chatter. From front page newspapers they now find themselves in social media channels.
But this is where crypto enthusiasts live. “The communities on Telegram, Reddit, Discord are massive. This is where inquisitive people are learning about crypto, getting investment tips, asking questions…—Founder of Zoo Media who founded among many others Marketing to a crypto client.
CoinSwitch Kuber has a strong community of around 51,000 on Telegram, although it is not a verified channel, it is quite active. CoinDCX has a verified channel with over 60,000 members in its supporter community, while WazirX Discus has over a million members. On these channels, community members discuss new coins, developments in the crypto world, ask exchanges to list new coins, discuss adverse marketing sentiments, solicit suggestions and give advice. Crypto exchanges are alive here.
These communities are the bread and butter of crypto. “In general, ads do not work for crypto. It is a peer-to-peer network and we are focused on building a strong community, backing it with good support and services, and Telegram and Social media platforms like Twitter are focusing on where users can be educated. Most of the communication is done through Twitter, whereas YouTube is dominant in terms of sending updates,” Malhotra said.
Gupta also talked about the fears of crypto exchanges when it comes to mainstream advertising. “The government has chased these companies, told them not to do what they are doing. Market sentiment is down, so nobody wants to advertise,” he said.
One must remember that cryptocurrencies are not the first organizations to be discouraged from marketing their product. When advertisers cannot openly market a product, they turn their attention to surrogates, which means brand marketing without mentioning the product. Wine is a classic example.
Even though crypto ads are not officially banned, companies have had to refrain from marketing their product. And they have redefined surrogate marketing in a sense.
“Crypto exchanges are investing in memes, informal channels, people teaching crypto. Although not crypto exchanges, Dream11 is a good example. They actually approached meme channels, understanding what to advertise to cricketers. What to choose, what to suggest in your communication,” Goyal said.
Another method of advertising is informational content. WazirX, one of India’s oldest and largest crypto exchanges, says it read the market sentiment in May and stopped advertising. As per his claim, his last sponsorship was the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship and his ads only ran on Sony Liv. But that didn’t stop him from interacting with people.
The brand has been uploading informative videos on its YouTube channel. “We used our social media to inform consumers. We have comprehensive videos with Digitized crypto guide, a special section called Coin Report created by third parties, Credit Ratings for Exchanges, Blockchain and Coin Offerings (Crebaco) various coins being traded on and series of reports. We also put out reports in 10 languages so that it is accessible to all,” said Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX,
But even these videos cannot take the place of mass media advertisements. His videos on the WazirX YouTube channel only have a few thousand or three digit views. Other exchanges like CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX have the same story.
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what does the future look like
In a bearish market, fraught with uncertainties, a revival of crypto ads doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. Negotiations with the government also take place in free suspension,
Bite’s Malhotra says India’s advertising space is currently unclear. “India needs detailed guidelines on crypto marketing and implementation of the same. A separate department is also needed to monitor the advertisements. Currently, the crypto narrative in India has its ups and downs. If you keep people in uncertainty the industry will not grow,” he said.
Malhotra was also a member of The Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council, which he says was working with the government to better understand the market place. But the committee has not met in more than six months. “The committee on advertising was dissolved six months ago because the government was not following through on the ideas given by crypto exchanges and was too strict. Since we were unable to achieve the results desired by the community, we dissolved the committee. given,” he says.
Crypto exchanges are waiting to see what the new fiscal year brings. But at present it is an industry that is in a state of confusion, and is unable to advertise a new product.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)