UK regulator rips into ‘Krypto’ Kim

The head of the UK’s financial watchdog criticized an Instagram ad posted in June by Kim Kardashian that promoted the cryptocurrency ethereum max, and used it as an example of rampant speculation in the cryptocurrency market.

Charles Randell, chair of the UK‘s Financial Conduct Authority, said in a speech Monday that Kardashian was “paid to ask her 250 million Instagram followers to speculate on crypto tokens by ’joining the ethereum max community.’ ”

Randell added, “It may have been the financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history.”

He was referencing a June post in which Kardashian asked her followers: “Are you guys into crypto???” in a post that included a short clip of her speaking about ethereum max. The post included the hashtag “#ad.”

Randell acknowledged that Kim disclosed that the post was sponsored content, “but she 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.”

“Of course, I can’t say whether this particular token is a scam. But socialmedia influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation,” he said.

For months, celebrities have played a role in hyping up various cryptocurrencies. Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped drive wild price swings in bitcoin earlier this year, while Snoop Dogg and Kiss frontman Gene Simmons hyped dogecoin on Twitter. Will Feuer

Kim Kardashian noted that this June Instagram post for ethereum max was an “#ad,” but she didn’t mention to her 250 million followers that the speculative coin was created just one month earlier, a watchdog says.