RIYADH: Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded higher on Thursday, rising by 1.80 percent to $41,935 at 11:34 a.m. Riyadh time.
Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $3,128, up by 2.55 percent, according to data from Coindesk.
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Both the UK and Spain are introducing crackdowns on cryptocurrency advertising this week.
The UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak plans to bring crypto ads under the same rules that apply to financial promotions to stop misleading claims causing investors to lose money.
In Spain, the government is also regulating crypto advertisements, with ministers targeting social media influencers to ensure investors are aware of the risks.
“I think it is good that this is being looked at so that consumers can be better protected,” said Ruud Feltkamp, CEO of cloud-based automated crypto trading bot Cryptohopper.
“In the past, scammers abused my face as Cryptohopper's CEO, and the faces of other more prominent persons in crypto, for a while by using them in malicious ads. Unfortunately, it turned out to be extremely difficult to do anything about these scam ads," he added.
Anto Paroian, chief operating officer at cryptocurrency hedge fund ARK36 added that: "Sadly, certain internet personalities at times have abused the trust of their audiences by failing to disclose they were being paid for promoting a certain cryptocurrency.
“Some of the coins endorsed in this way unexpectedly lost nearly all of their value over a short period of time. As a result, many unsuspecting retail investors suffered significant monetary losses.
"Therefore, the recent regulatory efforts in both Spain and the UK, which aim to clamp down on dishonest crypto advertising, may indeed have a net positive effect on the overall security of the digital asset market for an average investor.”
Warning against Russian pyramid schemes
Russians have put 5 trillion rubles ($67 billion) into crypto and some of them may lose everything as cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything, Anatoly Aksakov, a deputy with a key role in the regulation of Russia’s crypto space said.
Many of these people are unqualified investors and as such, pyramid schemes are likely to occur, Aksakov added.
Repeating previously issued warnings in an interview with the parliamentary Duma TV channel, the Russian lawmaker emphasized that there is no stability in the digital currency market.
Crypto prices can quickly move by 20 to 30 percent in one direction or another, according to Bitcoin.com.
"Therefore, it is important to regulate the market, to protect, first of all, our citizens, to establish taxation and certain rights for cryptocurrency owners. However, they must be identified," Aksakov said.
Adoption
Even after Bitcoin's recent plunge, CEO Michael Saylor says he will never back down on pushing MicroStrategy’s multi-billion bet on the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported.
The enterprise software company’s growing pile of Bitcoin has effectively made its shares a proxy for the digital asset.
"We’re not sellers, We’re only acquiring and holding Bitcoin, that’s our strategy,” Saylor said in an interview with Bloomberg.
