Amidst Rising Bitcoin Regulation Push, Google Bans Cryptocurrency Ads

After opening at $9,144, Bitcoin price crashed by almost 5% today after Google announced to ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency adverts effective June 2018. Just yesterday, Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund's head, said that regulatory authorities around the globe need to bring Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general under government control. The sentiment in favor of regulation of cryptocurrencies from government, technology giants and global organization has seen Bitcoin price to go down by a considerable margin in last few days. Google, the search and web services provider, made the announcement on Tuesday that the company, starting from June of current year, is going to modify its advertising policies for certain financial services that include cryptocurrencies. The ban will be applicable on both Google's own services and platforms such as YouTube and on third party websites as well where the digital advertising giant sells ad space. Following the announcement, Bitcoin value came crashing down and has struggled to cross the $9,000 since then. It should be noted that another technology behemoth, Facebook already banned all ads pertaining to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies citing fraud and scam control. As far as revenue is concerned, Google and Facebook account for the lion's share in online advertising. Unlike Facebook, Google has not made it clear why the company is banning cryptocurrency adverts, however, they added that ban also extended to content related to cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency trading advice, cryptocurrency wallets and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Google's Director of Sustainable Ads, Scott Spencer, opined in a blog post that the company has "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 cryptocurrency boom started last year when Bitcoin price began to climb rapidly. This popularity surge invited scammers and other shady elements to rob people out of their money through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) where credibility-lacking startups started issuing their own cryptocurrencies in lieu of the investment made by the investors. Given the history of scamming in cryptocurrency space, it is not surprising to see technology companies and governments pushing for regulation to ensure the security of public’s financial interest. On the other hand, these regulations are against the very idea of virtual currencies which aim to be decentralized and unregulated. It remains to be seen how this tug of war pans out but many analysts believe that it is a good time to get into cryptocurrency and buy Bitcoin.