The UK’s finance authority highlighted issues surrounding cryptoasset financial promotions, identifying some of the top risks associated with crypto marketing.

The FCA is calling out organisations for promoting claims about the safety, security, or ease of using cryptoasset services without highlighting their potential risks, making these risk warnings not visible enough to consumers, or failing to provide customers with adequate information on the specific risks of certain products and services.

Following this, the regulator is expecting authorised firms to take these regulatory obligations seriously, threatening action if they are not – the authority has already placed restrictions on rebuildingsociety.com ltd for not following these obligations.

Since the FCA took crypto under its remit, they have issued 221 alerts to different companies for not complying with different predatory promotional laws and not ensuring customers are aware of the risks associated with cryptocurrency and crypto trading.

While the UK attempts to become a superpower in technology, the regulator has taken a somewhat hard line when considering crypto, consistently calling the finance form “high-risk” for consumers.

Currently, the regulator is working across industries – including social media platforms, app stores, search engines and domain name registers – to remove or block illegal promotions. They are also collaborating with payments firms to limit the exposure of UK consumers to firms issuing these illegal promotions.

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The FCA is also encouraging consumers to check their warning list before making a crypto investment, which includes a list of unauthorised firms and individuals that are not allowed to operate in the UK.

“Even with the new marketing rules, cryptoassets still remain high-risk and largely unregulated. If something goes wrong, it is unlikely people will have access to consumer protections, so should be prepared to lose all their money,” the regulator warned.