The chairman of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the payment Systems Regulator (PSR), Charles Randell, singled out an American media personality for pushing unknown cryptocurrency. In a new warning about crypto scams, Randell singled out Kim Kardashian West during a speech at the Cambridge International Symposium on economic crime.
Discussing “the risks of token regulation” and the “rules which protect people from investment fraud and scams”, Randell detailed how online platforms can give advice about scams to help investors avoid making bad decisions. He said, “We’ll work with online platforms who want to protect both consumers and their own brands, and we’ll call out those who aren’t playing their part and are destroying the trust of their users.”
Randell argued that Kardashian “didn’t have to disclose that Ethereum Max, not to be confused with Ethereum, was a speculative digital token created a month before by unknown developers, one of hundreds of such tokens that fill the crypto-exchanges.”
He said, “Of course, I can’t say whether this particular token is a scam. But social media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation. Some influencers promote coins that turn out simply not to exist at all.” He said despite the risks, “the hype around them generates a powerful fear of missing out from some consumers who may have little understanding of their risks.”
Randell proceeded to discuss regulations stating that “it will take a great deal of careful thought to craft a regulatory regime which will be effective in the decentralised world of digital tokens.” He elaborated that “it’s clear that legislators need to consider three issues.” The first is “how to make it harder for digital tokens to be used for financial crime.” The second is “how to support useful innovation”, and the third is “the extent to which consumers should be free to buy unregulated, purely speculative tokens and to take the responsibility for their decisions to do so.”
