Google Announces Plans to Ban Bitcoin Ads

There’s been a lot of interest in bitcoin recently. For many it has become a lucrative form of investment, and there are plenty of people who prefer it over the many other methods of payment. If you’re not sure what bitcoin is, we’ll start with a brief explanation.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a recent phenomenon and one of a group of cryptocurrencies. The concept of bitcoin emerged two decades ago, shortly after banks in the US were accused of misusing borrowers money and various other malpractices. Bitcoin was created to provide a decentralised system in which the sellers were in charge, and there were no middlemen involved. Since its creation, this digital currency has come far. Across the globe, there are a wide variety of companies who will accept it for payments. It’s promoted by websites, discussed on forums and traded. As a virtual or digital currency, it uses cryptography for security. Because of this security feature, cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit. It is also a form of currency which is immune to interference or manipulation from government or financial institutions. At least in theory.

Everything has been very rosy for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Ripple and Dash. However, the mighty Google has set its sights on them, and just a few days ago it announced it was planning to ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content. The news was not taken very well and it has been reported that the price of bitcoin fell to around $8,000. A fall of 9%. Before this bad news bitcoin suffered further decreases in value. $2,000 in one week was the reported figure. This drop in price was a reaction to an announcement from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. It revealed it was planning to increase its scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges.

A similar decision was made in January by Facebook, the second largest online advertising provider, after Google. The social media provider banned advertising of binary options, initial coin offers and cryptocurrencies. This new is thought to have been the reason for a 12% decrease in the price of bitcoin.

Investment management firms don’t seem to be to bothered by either of the bans. A CEO from one is reported as saying that the bans would be a good thing for the industry. The reason for this is that ads on Google and Facebook were often seen as untrustworthy. This CEO also mentioned that it was not these bans that were driving the decrease in bitcoin prices. Another cloud on the horizon is causing much more fear for investors. China is saying that it will ban bitcoin. But on a lighter note, it has been saying the same thing for more than 5 years, and it’s still not happened.

So the bitcoin saga continues, which is possibly what makes it a very attractive investment. A number of other cryptocurrencies are also suffering recently. With Ethereum falling 9% to around $627, and Ripple dropped 8.6% to just 72 cents.

Relevant news