It seems that crypto regulations are spreading like a wildfire, this time affecting Formula1 and its participants' partners' branding.
During Formula One’s French Grand Prix, an annual auto race event attracting millions of viewers and investors, the crypto-related advertisements were either hidden or completely removed.
According to the report written by RacingNews365, on the July 24th race, the crypto-related advertisements were removed from Alpha Romeo, Alpha Tauri, and Alpine cars and driver’s clothing due to unclear French advertising regulations.
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Out of ten participating teams, eight of them have some kind of partnership with crypto organizations. Therefore, Alpha Romeo removed the crypto lender’s Vault and cryptocurrency Floki Inu (FLOKI) logos. Alpha Tauri removed ads from Fantom and finally, Alpine hid Binance ads.
Crypto.com has become one of the biggest global partners of Formula1 since July 2021. However, during the weekend’s race, their advertisements were absent. The company commented on this matter, stating:
Crypto.com decided they would not be exercising their branding rights for this race. But it remains F1’s global partner and we expect such rights to be leveraged in other ways at future races.
The removal of such advertisements comes only a few days after the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) announced its collaboration with France’s Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority. In the partnership, these institutions have added crypto-related ads to the already existing regulatory advertisement framework.
More specifically, AMF seeks to make digital asset companies warn their audience about the possible risks of crypto investments when talking about purchasing coins or tokens. It is worth noting that the French have one of the strictest advertising regulations in Europe. The country has already prohibited tobacco, gambling, and alcohol ads.
In Hong Kong, the implementation of regulations concerning crypto advertisement is also at full swing. The anti-money laundering law states that advertisements of any unlicensed crypto business can be fined $50,000 or imprisonment for up to 6 months.