Bitcoin price SLUMP – Cryptocurrency crackdown sees value of digital wallets tumble

Bitcoin prices slumped after search engine giant Google today announced a ban on adverts for the cryptocurrency.

Google said they were banning all adverts for cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ripple and Ethereum, as it seeks to “tackle emerging threats”.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are also covered by the upcoming ban which Bitcoin investors will see enforced in June.

The ban will also cover cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets. It comes after Facebook earlier this year introduced a similar ban.

The news was outlined in a blog post written by Google’s Director of Sustainable Ads Scott Spencer.

In it, he said: “We updated several policies to address ads in unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference (or CFDs).”

The webpage for the updated policy itself says: “In June 2018, Google will update the Financial services policy to restrict the advertisement of Contracts for Difference, rolling spot forex, and financial spread betting.

“In addition, ads for the following will no longer be allowed to serve: Binary options and synonymous products.

“Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice)”.

In the aftermath of the news being announced, prices of Bitcoin tumbled by around eight per cent.

Bitcoin prices hit a low of $8,298.03 (as of the time of writing) after starting the day above $9,000, according to data from CoinDesk.

Last month Facebook also announced a similar cryptocurrency ban, which affected Bitcoin, ICOs and binary options.

Explaining their decision, Facebook said such advert are “frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”

Rob Leathern, Facebook’s product management director, said: “We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception.

“That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith.”

In February, a study was published which outlined how cybercriminals were trying to trick Bitcoin investors with fake adverts.

Experts from Cisco Talos’s cybersecurity team along with the Ukraine Cyberpolice uncovered the Bitcoin stealing scam.

In a blog post, researchers Jeremiah O’Connor and Dave Maynor revealed up to $50million (£35.64m) worth of Bitcoin was stolen in the past three years.

The cybercriminal gang, dubbed ‘Coinhoarder’, used “Google AdWords to poison user search results in order to steal users’ wallets”.

The researchers said the hackers helped spread their scam by purchasing advertising slots on Google AdWords.

So when a user searched for terms such as “blockchain” or “bitcoin wallet”, search results would display fake websites.

These fake sites carried the same design as the original page they mimicked, in an attempt to trick users into thinking it was authentic.

These fake results, which had names and URLs varying slightly to Blockchain, even appeared above the popular site because they were promoted links.

This tricked users into believing they were on a legitimate website, leading them to log in with their username and password.

But this enabled hackers to steal these sensitive credentials, and then empty out victims’ wallets.

The researchers wrote: “This campaign was unique in that adversaries leveraged Google AdWords to poison user search results in order to steal users’ wallets.

“Since Cisco observed this technique, it has become increasingly common in the wild with attackers targeting many different crypto wallets and exchanges via malicious ads.”

The researchers added that the hackers had focussed on countries where access to traditional banking may be difficult.

Such regions included Estonia, Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries.

Cisco Talos believes the ‘Coinhoarder’ cybercriminals have been operating since at least 2015, and profited from the huge rise in Bitcoin’s price last year.

They added: “While criminals were able to profit from this, it also adds a new level of complexity for criminals to convert their cryptocurrency funds to a fiat currency like US dollars.

“The historic price of Bitcoin during the height of this campaign would have made it very difficult to move these ill-gotten finances easily.”

Cisco Talos warned that it was “clear” cryptocurrency phishing via Google AdWords had become a lucrative way to target unsuspecting victims.

But thanks to Google’s upcoming reforms, the days of crooks using Google Ads to target unsuspecting victims are numbered.