Experts Discuss ASCI's New Guidelines for NFT and Cryptocurrency
Recently, Deloitte published a report predicting India will easily catch up to the trend of the global NFT revolution with favorable regulations. The report foresees NFTs for sports generating more than $2 billion in transactions this year, nearly double the number of than last year.
Reports by a market research corporation Finder claimed Asian nations surpass the rest of the world with respect to cryptocurrency adoption. Vietnam is known to have the greater percentage of cryptocurrency ownership at 40 percent in Asia. Vietnam is followed by Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
However, all major crypto exchanges in India have suspended all marketing and promotional operations from November 2021, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in a Parliament meeting that 'attempts to mislead the youth via over-promising and non-transparent advertising should be halted.'
Since then, cryptocurrency exchanges in India have abstained from running new print, television, and radio commercials. The Advertising Standards Council of India has now issued new guidelines for NFT products and cryptocurrency exchanges. Virtual Digital Assets and services will be required to include prominent disclaimers under the new requirements.
Experts Discuss New Guidelines of ASCI
After a long sabbatical from marketing, crypto platforms are up for the task and keen to resume their marketing operations before the IPL (Indian Premier League). The Founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, Ashish Singhal stated that ASCI is moving in the right direction to regulate advertisements within a virtual digital asset space.
“The VDA industry is supportive of all efforts towards investor protection, however, there are nuances that need to be addressed as the space is ever-evolving. We will continue to work together with ASCI and other stakeholders to refine them further.”
The Business Head at Jupiter Meta, Manasa Rajan is in agreement with the ASCI guidelines helping to improve accountability from marketers. She believes that the benefits of a regulatory framework in the initial stage will help in discovering the value of NFTs.
The new guidelines come a month after Financial Minister Nirmala Sitharaman revealed intentions to tax cryptocurrency investments by 30 percent in India’s Union Budget. Although most crypto commercials did include disclaimers, they were easily missed out as they appeared on the bottom of the screen or zipped past in a few seconds.
According to the updated guidelines, voiceover delivered during a crypto advertisement will speak at a regular rate so customers do not miss out on essential information. If the commercial is of long format (i.e., more than two minutes), the disclaimer should be repeated at the beginning as well as the ending of the video.
Overall, the existing principles state that advertisements cannot mislead, misguide, provide incorrect information, or take advantage of a consumer's lack of experience on a subject. For instance, CoinSwitch’s B2C commercial with Ranveer Singh or CoinDCX’s campaign with Ayushmann Khurrana demonstrated how investing in crypto is easy and beneficial.
These advertisements portrayed a rosy picture of cryptocurrency - emphasizing the benefits and downplaying the volatility and risk of assets. The ASCI has prevented VDS products from claiming their product easy-to-use and consumers need not hesitate to invest. ASCI also prohibits the use of terms like ‘currency, securities, custodian, and depositories’ in the ads.
The aim today for these crypto players is to gain people's trust, build awareness, and educate them, all while convincing them that investing in cryptocurrency is risk-free. In addition to these rules and a lack of market trust, crypto exchanges will compete with the government's digital currency as well.
The new ASCI criteria will undoubtedly influence brand spending, particularly during the forthcoming IPL season. According to the Co-Founder of Blink, the increase in adoption will help private players like CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX to raise ad expenditure to compete against the launch of the government’s digital currency.
Solving the Concerns of Advertising in NFT and Crypto
In context to crypto advertisements and ASCI guidelines, the rising question is will increased transparency limit the creative freedom of commercials? Rage Coffee just made its blockchain debut with its Valentine's Day NFT promotion. According to its founder, Bharat Sethi, the growing adoption of crypto tokens has resulted in the creation of advertisements that minimize the risk associated with these assets.
Thereby, Sethi feels that this is a positive development and it is best to be transparent concerning consumers’ interests. ASCI guidelines will indeed bring transparency and accountability to advertisements shown to consumers.