Irish Central Bank urges against crypto targeting young adults

A top banking official has cautioned that there is too much advertisement directed at young adults in Ireland.

The Central Bank of Ireland has urged lawmakers to consider banning crypto advertising for certain groups, particularly promotional activities that push crypto assets on young adults.

Gabriel Makhlouf, the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, said that while cryptocurrencies posed minimal risk for the financial system as we know it right now, this may change if more people continue to invest heavily in assets that have no underpinning value.

The bank was very concerned for retail customers who participated in cryptocurrency products and companies without fully understanding the risk profile of the investment.

Makhlouf said that the current level of investment by young adults was “reasonable” in the sense that there weren’t too many people pushing aggressively in crypto, but he expressed concern about the level of advertising that is actively seeking to reach that same group.

He recommended that adverts to that particular cohort to be banned altogether. Makhlouf also called unbacked crypto “essentially a Ponzi scheme”, and said that “when you gamble you can win, but most of the time when you gamble, you’re actually losing”.

Concerns about overexposure to the crypto sector have been mounting among regulators who have witnessed the collapses of several prominent players in the sector.

TerraUSD and FTX are perhaps the biggest drivers of the current downturn, but many other companies have suffered in the ripple effect.

Gemini, a company that launched a lending product promising tidy returns, has been unable to repay $900m in consumer funds, pointing the finger at Genesis, the crypto company that helped Gemini set up the fund in the first place.

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Written by Barney

Co-founder

Barney is co-founder of CryptoGamblingNews.com. When not at work he can usually be found behind a Nikon. He's won numerous international competitions for his photography and volunteers as a content creator for aid organisations in Africa.

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