Key Sentence:
- Kim Kardashian has been criticized by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for promoting unverified cryptocurrencies on Instagram.
- Charles Randall said Ms. Kardashian “asked her 250 million followers to speculate on crypto tokens” by promoting an ad for Ethereum Max.
Kim Kardashian called it “a speculative digital signature created by an unknown developer a month ago.”
And he accuses influential people of appreciating the “quick luck frenzy. Randell speaks at the Cambridge International Symposium on White Collar Crime.
The FCA chairman said Ms. Kardashian, which he aptly calls an ad, is perhaps the “biggest financial advert in history.” It’s not the popular Ethereum Max Token; he’s messing with the Ethereum cryptocurrency.
“I don’t know if this token [Ethereum Max] is a cheat,” he said. “But social media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to need them pump and toss new tokens amid sheer speculation. As a result, some influential people are promoting coins that simply don’t exist,” he said. Mr. Randell said that around 2.3 million Britons currently own cryptocurrency. And he said 14% of them also used loans to buy it – “adding to the risk of loss.”
He said the FCA had repeatedly warned of the risks of holding “speculative tokens” that were not regulated by the FCA and covered by the compensation system.
“If you buy it, you have to be willing to lose all your money,” he said.
Mr. Randell said there was a need to organize promotions to address consumer misconceptions. That their investments were protected – and “the cruel and often misleading advertising techniques of some crypto companies.”