Announced in Financial products and services policy update

Sep 25, 2018 15:59 GMT  ·  By

Google announced in an update to its financial products and services policy that regulated cryptocurrency exchanges will be once again allowed to advertise in the United States and Japan.

As stated in the policy update, "Advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve. Advertisers will be able to apply for certification once the policy launches in October."

Advertisers can get certified by meeting local licensing requirements, a list of them being made available for all regions on the "About restricted financial products certification" support page.

The new policy which will take effect starting in October 2018 will be applied on a global scale to all advertisers who want to buy ads for cryptocurrency-based products.

With this policy update, Google is going back on the decision it took in March and rolled out in June which banned wallets and trading services, as well as initial coin offerings (ICOs) from being advertised in an effort to protect customers from threat actors trying to exploit the public's willingness to invest in this volatile commodity.

Google's decision to allow cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise on its platform follows the one made by Facebook in June

After Google's new cryptocurrency ad restrictions were implemented in June, Bitcoin's market valuation suffered a more than 10% fall.

The changes Google made to its financial products and services policy still doesn't allow ICOs and wallets to advertise using Google's ad network while making an exception for cryptocurrency exchanges which are seen as less risky at the moment.

Google is not the first tech company which reversed their cryptocurrency ban, as they are following Facebook's June decision to give vetted cryptocurrency advertisers a break and allows them to advertise on its platform.

After the original ban on cryptocurrency advertising, Google's Scott Spencer said to CNBC that "we don't have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we've seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it's an area that we want to approach with extreme caution."