CNMV Circular 1/2022 (crypto-asset advertising)

You have probably seen crypto ads featuring footballers or influencers claiming you will get rich. To curb that misleading advertising, the CNMV (the “referee” of the markets in Spain) issued a set of rules: Circular 1/2022.

The idea is simple: if you advertise crypto-assets to the public in Spain, you cannot promise easy gains, you must warn that you could lose all your money, and the advertising must be clear and honest. Large campaigns even have to be notified to the CNMV before launch. It is like putting a “this carries risk” label on every ad.

CNMV Circular 1/2022, of 10 January, on the advertising of crypto-assets presented as an investment, implements Article 240 bis of the then-applicable consolidated text of the Securities Market Act (now integrated into Ley 6/2023 LMVSI), which empowered the CNMV to bring crypto-asset advertising activity under supervision.

It sets out principles requiring messages to be clear, balanced, non-misleading and identifiable as advertising, the mandatory inclusion of risk warnings (including the possible total loss of the investment and, where applicable, the absence of regulation), and a regime of prior notification to the CNMV for mass campaigns (addressed to more than 100,000 persons). It should be noted that its scope covers crypto-assets not regulated as financial instruments; with the full application of MiCA (MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), crypto-asset marketing communications also become subject to the requirements of the Regulation itself.