On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court published a notice for directions on proper guidelines against crypto asset trading in India. The notice talks about national television publicity without standardised disclaimers.
Meeting The Established Firms
The Justice Division Bench DN Patel and Jyoti Singh requested answers from SEBI, Wazir X, CoinDCX and Coinswitch Kuber. They scheduled the meeting for August.
According to the petition, Wazir X, CoinDCX, and Coinswitch Kuber are brought in as they are established crypto exchanges. They currently operate within the Indian territory, running enticing ads and drawing retail investors to trade in cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets.
What does the plea say?
The plea said that crypto-assets are intrinsically more risky in share market investing, mutual funds, and other financial instruments. Additionally, these offer more investment options than regular equity investment products.
The petition stated that crypto-assets should be treated similarly to mutual funds. Subsequently, To protect retail investors who are unaware of the inherent characteristics of crypto-assets and their risk profile. This is apparent as they highly depend on market supply and demand. They also regularly rise when certain crypto-world celebrities make positive statements.
The Advertisement
Currently, audio-visual advertising conducted by businesses in the industry includes a line of text lower than the required size, indicating:
“Cryptocurrency is an uncontrolled digital currency, not a legal cash, and susceptible to market hazards.“
It also stated that there is no voice-over. Moreover, the text displayed in numerous advertisements is less than two seconds. However, this is an unlikely observation that viewers will make while watching the ad. This is due to the placement, size and duration of the text on the screen.
