In early 2018, Facebook banned crypto companies from advertising on its group of social media platforms. It was a sweeping move aimed at weeding out “misleading or deceptive” promotions for financial products and services. Crypto ads can create a miracle for your trading business.
In the nearly 4 years since then, however, cryptocurrencies have gained legitimacy as financial assets. With large companies like Tesla investing heavily in bitcoin and governments like El Salvador recognizing it as an official legal tender, crypto has entered the mainstream step by step.
We even wrote recently about Twitter’s crypto tipping function, which enables users to send bitcoin through the social media app. Twitter is also eyeing an NFT authentication feature for the near future.
With the tides swiftly changing in crypto’s favor, Facebook (which has rebranded itself as “Meta”) has found it necessary to revoke its advertising ban completely. Here’s a bit more on what led to the change, and why it’s important to the future of cryptocurrencies.
The Fall Of Libra And Diem Which Creates Crypto Ads
The change in policy can be traced back in part to Libra and Diem, then Facebook’s own attempts to establish unique cryptocurrency and blockchain services. Libra was first launched in June 2019 with Calibra, which was touted as the company’s very own crypto wallet.
Reputed financial resource AskMoney reported that Calibra would allow users to store, access, send, and receive cryptocurrencies, much like an independent functioning wallet. Unlike other crypto wallets, however, Calibra was designed to be used exclusively within company-owned platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
However, Libra was criticized from the get-go for its potential to compete with sovereign currencies and disrupt the global financial system.
This caused one-time corporate backers like eBay, Mastercard, and PayPal to jump ship, which in turn led to the end of the Libra experiment. Facebook subsequently rebranded Libra as “Diem,” a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar (with Calibra becoming “Novi”).
However, Diem has yet to be released. Additionally, news website TechCrunch reported recently that executive David Marcus, head of Meta’s cryptocurrency ventures, has announced that he is leaving the company.
Just a day later, Facebook formally lifted its ban on crypto ads. Experts speculate that Marcus’s lackluster performance with Libra and Diem was a key factor in this decision.
Opportunities For The Future Of Crypto
Previously, Facebook required advertisers to answer extensive questionnaires, and obtain at least 1 of 3 licenses to prove the legitimacy of their operations.
This prevented many startups working in both cryptocurrency and blockchain from growing their customer bases through the social media giant’s platform. In lifting the ban, however, Meta has also expanded the number of accepted licenses to 27.
This means smaller businesses can now tap into the nearly 3 billion active users across the company’s various platforms. More importantly, this indicates that more extensive advertising will be used to target users outside the current niche that is composed of early, tech-savvy crypto investors.
We can thus expect more everyday consumers to try their hands at crypto, resulting in increased adoption and more opportunities for cryptocurrencies moving forward.
For Meta itself however, this move points toward what seems to be a deadlock in its own cryptocurrency ventures. The rebranded Novi crypto wallet currently only operates in the U.S. and Guatemala, and is dependent on external currencies like the Paxos Dollar.
The Final Thoughts
Plans for the launch of Diem itself are still up in the air. With Marcus set to depart from Meta at the end of the year, the future of Diem remains unclear. However, one thing is certain: Meta’s revised policy on crypto ads shows support for the industry’s growth through the platform.
Thank you for reading, and please visit The Bitcoin Magazine again for more updates from the crypto world.
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