Kim Kardashian has been called out by the chair of the UK financial conduct authority (FCA) for promoting an untested cryptocurrency on her Instagram.
Kardashian who is known for promoting a range of controversial items from skinny teas to slim shakes, recently promoted the cryptocurrency, Ethereum Max, on an Instagram story.
The story featured seemingly unverified information about the new cryptocurrency and she asked her followers the question. “Are you guys into crypto?” before adding, “this is not financial advice.”
The post also included a swipe up link presumedly to Ethereum Max and included the #ad. The post seemingly didn’t break any rules. However, that hasn’t stopped Charles Randell, chair of the FCA from calling Kardashian out.
The BBC, reported that Randell was speaking to Cambridge International Symposium on economic crime when he referenced Kardashian’s Instagram post, “When she (Kardashian) was recently paid to ask her 250 million Instagram followers to speculate on crypto tokens by ‘joining the Ethereum Max Community’, it may have been the financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history.
“I can’t say whether this particular token [Ethereum Max] 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.”
Little is known about Ethereum Max, because it is so new, it was only launched in May this year. Which makes it hard to determine how legitimate it is. Yet, Kardashian still shared it with her millions of followers, all 251 million.
Seemingly the laws and regulations haven’t caught up with the rapid rise of cryptocurrency, and cryptocurrency clearly isn’t going away, Bitcoin crashed this morning after El Salvador announced it would accept it as legal tender.
