Dodgy cryptocurrency ads, although pledged to cease, are still on

Influencer-based paid partnerships have been published between the last week of November and early December by CoinDCX

“In this world, money is everything. If you have money you can get anything. All you need to do is make money, which will further beget money. How? Through CoinDCX using crypto and bitcoins. But don’t worry, it’s safe and secure. Use my code MOJ100, you can get bitcoins worth Rs 100,” says Moj creator @annsindhu, who has over four million followers, in a Malayalam language video that has been on the short-video app since the last week of November.

Check this ad on Moj

Another such paid video on Moj, by a creator called @awexdarbar with 2.3 million followers, says: “God has given me everything, money and respect, and yes, I have the phone too to invest in crypto and bitcoin through CoinDCX. It is India’s safest, simplest investment app where you will get quality checked cryptos. Download and sign up now and use my code MOJ100 to get Rs 100 worth of free bitcoins.

Check it on Moj here.

These influencer-based paid partnerships have been published between the last week of November and early December by CoinDCX, India's first cryptocurrency unicorn, co-founded by Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta. Gupta is also head of industry body Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), a part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMMAI), and attended the parliamentary committee meeting last month.

This comes after the Government had directed crypto exchanges to not mislead users. During the parliamentary panel meeting, which was held on November 13, the government said that it strongly felt’ that advertisements by cryptocurrency companies and exchanges are not transparent and need to stop. Further, after the November 15 Parliamentary Committee meeting, the exchanges reached a broad consensus to go slow on advertisements or at least have them in a more responsible way.

Bollywood actress Disha Patani posted an Instagram video promoting CoinDCX.  Communication strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan found it to be an irresponsible one.

“This is very irresponsible. Considering this was posted on November 30, at least two weeks after the crypto industry decided to pause advertising,” said Srinivasan.

The company did not respond to WhatsApp messages and e-mailed queries.

Raza adds that the exchanges, which are seeing stiff competition and at the same time are strongly funded, are under pressure to add new users to clock growth because of which such marketing becomes crucial. “These exchanges do not have standard advertising practices yet, and that’s what needs to be done now.”

Apart from these paid partnerships, there is a lot of unchecked content on YouTube and Telegram to lure subscribers. However, it is unclear how such content can be curbed, say the experts.

For instance, a Youtube and Telegram channel called Earning Locker shares tips with users on how they can unlock coupon codes and earn Bitcoin rewards on the exchanges. These videos have thousands of views and the Telegram channel has over 12,000 subscribers.

The message shown below is from another Telegram group which has over 90,000 subscribers.

Raza says that such content is very scary. “Content creation is very easy today and there is a growing appetite for crypto-content. These creators are just seeing traction and joining the bandwagon. But, it is very risky if users follow these creators and risk investments,” says Raza.

He adds that once regulations are in place, demand for such content will drop and there will be more awareness and education around the topic.