Months after Facebook, Google, and Twitter banned cryptocurrency-related ads, Microsoft has decided to take a similar stance. Beginning July 2018, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will no longer display advertising for cryptocurrency and other related products.
On March 14, Bing announced the ban on its website, citing customer protection as one of the major reasons behind the decision to bar cryptocurrency ads. Melissa Alsoszatai-Petheo, Bing’s advertiser policy manager, noted:
“Because cryptocurrency and related products are not regulated, we have found them to present a possible elevated risk to our users, with the potential for bad actors to participate in predatory behaviors, or otherwise scam consumers.”
Markets bleed red
News of the ban appears to have sparked a massive sell-off in the market. EOS plunged over 13% in the past 24 hours, dragging its price down to $12.30 from yesterday’s highs above $14. Although EOS managed to claim 5th spot in the top 10 rankings by market cap just weeks ago, it is down 30% in the last week.
Bitcoin Cash, which underwent a hard fork yesterday, lost 11.74% and is trading at $1,258, adding to the coin’s struggle to surpass $1,500. Ripple’s performance has been lackluster this week despite the fact that the company announced the launch of Xpring, a new initiative that will offer investments and grants to entrepreneurs using XRP. At the time of writing, XRP finds itself just under $0.70. Bitcoin and Ethereum are managing to stay afloat with minor damage. Both coins are down approximately 5.68%, trading at $8,248 and $690, respectively.
The week is turning out to be somewhat of a disappointing one for the crypto market. With Consensus, one of the largest blockchain conferences in the world, taking place this week, many speculated coins across the board would receive a significant price boost as has happened in the past. Though Bitcoin did briefly rise in price on Monday, those gains have already been erased. Social media sentiment shows that the conference has fallen short of expectations so far, and this appears to be reflected in the market as well. With two more days of Blockchain Week New York left, there is still time for the conference to help the market make a comeback and turn green.
