Changpeng Zhao explained that word-of-mouth plays a larger role than advertising in accelerating user adoption
The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said in a recent interview shared by CNBC that he does not expect increasing advertising restrictions from regulators to slow cryptocurrency growth.
Zhao noted that crypto advertising is a relatively recent phenomenon and that word-of-mouth has been the dominant force behind crypto adoption. For that reason, he expects demand for cryptocurrencies to continue growing, and he sees rising regulatory action against crypto ads as part of that broader evolution.
“Crackdowns on crypto advertising probably won’t have much effect on demand, because most crypto users come through word-of-mouth promotions anyway,” he explained.
Advertising has not been a major influence
Zhao added that even major advertising platforms like Google and Facebook were slow to allow crypto ads on their networks. Given that history, he argues that advertising has not played a significant role in crypto adoption over the years.
Regulators worldwide have recently become more concerned about what kinds of crypto ads should be permitted in their jurisdictions.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently banned crypto advertising in public places. Spain’s financial regulator, the CNMV, also changed its rules to require influencers and their sponsors to submit a notice of intent at least ten days before publishing a crypto advertisement.
In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is reportedly pushing for broader mandates on crypto advertising, reflecting a series of bans and warnings it has issued to entities operating in the country. The ASA has banned crypto-related ads from Coinbase, Kraken, eToro, Papa Johns and Arsenal Football Club for content that it said could have taken advantage of inexperienced users.
Crypto.com confirms hack incident
Separately, Crypto.com confirmed yesterday that it experienced a security incident earlier this week that resulted from a breach of exchange systems. The company said its risk monitoring systems first detected suspicious activity on Monday at approximately 00:46 UTC.
In total, 483 users were affected by the incident in which withdrawals were initiated without passing two-factor authentication. That led to unauthorized withdrawals totaling 443.93 BTC, 4,836.26 ETH and $66,200 USD.
After detecting the unusual activity, the exchange suspended all withdrawals to address the issue and restored them after about 13 to 14 hours. Crypto.com’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, said that all affected customers were reimbursed so that no user incurred losses. He noted that given the overall size of the business, the reported amounts are modest and do not indicate any systemic risk to customer assets.
Crypto.com also reported conducting a full audit of its infrastructure to strengthen platform security. The exchange engaged external security firms to perform additional checks and improve threat detection.