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US Consumer Watchdog Looks into Crypto Companies’ Misleading Ads

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into several crypto firms that haven’t been named for possible wrongdoing in how they market digital assets.

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into whether or not some cryptocurrency companies’ ads were deceptive or misleading.

A spokeswoman for the FTC, Juliana Gruenwald, told Bloomberg on December 6 that the agency is looking into “several firms for possible wrongdoing with digital assets.”

Gruenwald didn’t say more about which companies were being looked into or what had started the investigation.

But this year, misleading advertising and promotions have been a hot topic in the U.S.

Kim Kardashian was fined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October for “touting” about the EthereumMax (EMAX) crypto token on social media without saying she was paid $250,000 to do so.

In November, it was said that NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA point guard Stephen Curry were among a group of celebrities that the Texas financial regulator was looking into for promoting the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a government agency that works on its own. Its goal is to protect the public from unfair or deceptive business practices by using law enforcement, research, and education.

They sent out a warning about a crypto scam earlier this year. The scam has three main parts: a fake account, a QR code, and a crypto ATM where the victims will be told to send money.

In a report released on June 6, they also said that almost half of all crypto-related scams came from social media platforms in 2021, and that scammers have stolen as much as $1 billion in crypto so far this year.

Cointelegraph asked the FTC for comment, but had not heard back by the time the article was published.