The Spanish manager argues with player Andrés Iniesta over a Binance tweet

The Spanish market manager has criticized one of the country’s top football players for promoting the digital platform Binance, in a media exchange that comes at a time when crypto companies are struggling to reach sports fans around the world.

The National Securities Market Commission responded to Andrés Iniesta, the winner of Spain’s 2010 World Cup victory, posting on Twitter photos of him using the Binance platform.

A watchdog tweet, which was sent out late Wednesday, reminded Iniesta that “cryptoassets, like unmanaged items, have some risks”.

The analyst told the Financial Times that he was concerned about fitness players and other “promoters” who promoted crypto currencies for audiences who did not understand how the market worked or what the rules did – or did not apply.

The intervention of Spanish regulators comes as the promotion of crypto exchanges and tokens on the game has grown. Singapore – the capital of digital currency exchange Crypto.com last week agreed to pay $ 700m for 20 years of naming rights at the Los Angeles Stadium where the Lakers basketball team is.

I am learning how to set up cryptocurrencies with @BinanceES #BinanceForAll

I’m learning how to get started with crypto @binance #BinanceForAll pic.twitter.com/3Km58KrnPG

– Andrés Iniesta (@ andresiniesta8) November 24, 2021

The council urged prominent and influential people to “be vigilant” in encouraging “investing in unsustainable assets at risk. [the] in public ”.

“All of this led us last night to say to Iniesta, who we admire and who has brought us so much joy, please, before you accept this, tell your followers about the dangers; this too is your responsibility,” said the guard.

Rakuten – who owns Vissel Kobe, the Japanese club that Iniesta plays for – has a crypto exchange only. Iniesta representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a report released Thursday, the Spanish Association of Financial Users, which protects consumer profits, said that according to a survey in which more than 4.4 Spaniards had deposited cryptocurrencies and that 41 percent of them considered cryptocurrencies safe.

Iniesta is not the only well-known football player to send Binance approval. Raúl Jiménez, who plays for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, Colombian player James Rodríguez and Atlético Madrid player Luis Suárez all posted pictures of themselves with Binance earlier this month under the #BinanceForAll hashtag.

The crypto exchange mentioned three game experts in a post last week promoting media competition: “Get talented with @jamesdrodriguez, @ LuisSuarez9, @ Raul_Jimenez9 on #Binance and you can win,” the team’s main story said on Twitter.

The three footballers have 39m followers included on Twitter.

Representatives for Jiménez, Rodríguez, and Suárez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Binance said: “We strongly agree with the views of the Spanish monarch.”

The intervention of regulators in Spain is similar to the efforts of the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and other regulators to crack down on those who promote crypto and warn small investors about the dangers of digital assets.

A UK regulator has launched an online $ 11m advertising campaign, using TikTok ads and a partnership with BMX Olympic gold medalist Charlotte Worthington, to warn investors of small amounts of potentially dangerous assets.

“This is a group we are concerned about that we are not reaching,” Sarah Pritchard, head of FCA markets, said last month. “We are not communicating with the machines they use and what concerns them.”

Spain’s security committee said the country’s government had asked it to regulate crypto advertising while the EU was awaiting bloc-wide rules for crypto as a whole. But the committee still has to seize this power because Spanish advertising laws have not yet been implemented.

“We realize that we are not reaching out to new audiences – young people between the ages of 30 and 45 – and the media and we are trying to use other forms, forms, and even other languages,” the agency said. he said.