Crypto ads are worrying.

Am I the only one who thinks that if a highly risky, volatile, and semi/unregulated financial product is being advertised as 'safe' and 'high returns', it should immediately raise red flags within the regulators, whether financial or even advertisement? Surely, if your product is trying very hard to convince you that it is safe, somewhere inside you, your Spidey-sense needs to tingle, right?

 

I mean, crypto is being advertised aggressively to poor youth with mobiles. It is being gamified and pushed as rather easy to invest in and make profits. And it is being normalised by large, splashy, celebrity-endorsed advertisements in the mainstream media like the front pages of national newspapers and prime spots on the cricket T20 world cup, especially the highly watched Indo-Pak matches.

 

I may sound like an uncle who is behind times (which I probably am) to most of you, but honestly, this is how lotteries are advertised. I worry this may lead to addiction, crime, and financial ruin.

 

The ironic part is that by convincing the poor youth that this is a fun game and it is easy to win, they will bring in millions of speculators with money that they cannot afford to lose, thus pushing up the prices which will result in even more innocent and silly speculators thronging to buy, perpetuating the cycle. This is a Ponzi scheme if there ever was one.