Crypto Token Floki Inu Breached Advertising Standards, Says UK’s ASA

Key Insights:

• British ad regulator bans crypto meme coin Floki Inu for trivializing investment in the market.
• Floki Inu’s ad across the London Underground last year took advantage of consumers’ naivety.
• The clampdown follows ASA’s ban on crypto marketing last December.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on Wednesday banned meme-based crypto Floki Inu ads after concluding that it was “irresponsible.”

“Missed Doge? Get Floki” Exploited Consumers

Per ASA rulings, the ad appeared across the London Underground last November featuring an image of a cartoon dog wearing a Viking helmet alongside the slogan “Missed Doge? Get Floki.”

2. #FLOKI to completely lock down London Underground.

London Underground, or the Tube, is one of the busiest metro systems in the world — handling up to 5 million passenger journeys daily.

Well, you'll be seeing $FLOKI all over the Tube in October! pic.twitter.com/aGkpDUmMGs

— Floki Inu (@RealFlokiInu) September 28, 2021

According to the regulator, the ad promotion exploited consumers’ inexperience and credulity. The campaign for Floki Inu has deliberately lured consumers who may have missed out on making money from other successful cryptocurrencies, and in this case, Dogecoin.

“We considered that the use of a cartoon imagery gave the impression that purchasing cryptocurrency was a light-hearted and trivial matter,” the ASA ruled.

The watchdog also said that the promotion primarily targeted the “informed consumer” to eye on a new coin opportunity. While the ad protected an “average consumer” by the warning text in smaller font at the bottom of the ad, they would see it as a play on words but “not understand the ad without further research.”

“We told Floki Inu to ensure that they did not irresponsibly exploit consumers’ fear of missing out and trivialize cryptocurrency investment,” the regulator said.

Floki Inu is a meme-themed cryptocurrency inspired by Shiba Inu and named after a dog owned by Tesla chief Elon Musk. The project runs on both the Ethereum blockchain and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network.

The rise of the Shiba Inu coin was recently cited in the news as scammers have potentially used the brand to steal users’ funds on Tron. PeckShield released an announcement regarding the Shiba Inu token on the Tron blockchain, a scam that appears to be a honeypot for Shiba Inu.

Floki Up 20% Today

Floki Inu has traded 20.3% higher at $0.00004439 over the 24 hours preceding early Wednesday morning. It is currently trading at $0.00004481 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap.

Possible catalysts that have driven to the bullish sign are that the meme crypto was among the ten most mentioned coins by retweets on Twitter. Cointrendz data said that it attracted over 385 retweets at press time.

Additionally, crypto exchange Huobi Global announced Tuesday that it has listed Floki Inu and will soon launch a trading function.

New Listing on Huobi! 🔥

👏 $FLOKI @RealFlokiInu

Deposits will open at 04:00 (UTC)
Trading starts soon👇

— Huobi (@HuobiGlobal) March 2, 2022