The price of bitcoin tanked on Sunday amid speculation that Twitter will become the third major tech firm to ban cryptocurrency advertising from its platform.
Plunging by up to $1,000 in a space of 24 hours, the popular digital cash dwindled to $7,300 from roughly $8,300 only a day prior, according to statistics recorded by Coindesk, a website that can be used to track bitcoin's real-time value.
The cryptocurrency's value has been particularly volatile since warnings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this month. The agency said that trading platforms would soon have to register with the government or face legal action. At that time, bitcoin's price tanked from $11,000 to £9,500.
On Sunday, Sky News reported that Twitter is soon expected to follow Facebook and Google in the banning of crypto advertising to its userbase. It is believed it will outlaw ads for "initial coin offerings (ICOs), token sales, and cryptocurrency wallets."
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the Sky News report, the new policy will be implemented within the next two weeks.
In recent weeks there has been a sharp rise in online cryptocurrency scams swarming the web, with fraudsters posing as technologists and celebrities. Last Wednesday, Alphabet's Google said crypto advertising would be banned from June.
Google's director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, said the change was designed to "to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference. In order to make money from Google ads, you have to play by rules."
Facebook, the social network currently facing a storm of controversy over alleged data misuse and political advertising, was the first platform to make the move.
"We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception," Facebook product management director, Rob Leathern, wrote in a blog post on January 30.
"That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith." According to U.S-based Facebook, the new anti-bitcoin policy is being kept "intentionally broad."
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Jason Murdock is a staff reporter for Newsweek.
Based in London, Murdock previously covered cybersecurity for the International Business Times UK ... Read more
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