Bitcoin ads bash banks as fears mount over sanctions restricting access to US dollar payment system
- Recent adverts in Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper, international media outlets and Western broadcasts encourage investors to shun banks
- Cryptocurrency supporters say one advantage is that it is not subject to government pressure, but critics point to its use in illegal activities
The number of bitcoin adverts appearing in major newspapers is growing as the United States steps up its efforts to impose financial sanctions on foreign government officials and companies, cutting them off from the US dollar global payment system.
Most cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, operate under a public computer network that is designed to exist outside the control of a central authority, becoming an alternative payment system to traditional banking.
On Monday, a bitcoin advertisement spanned the entire front page of Apple Daily, a major Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. The digital coin also recently featured in India’s The Economic Times, Britain’s Financial Times, as well as in televised adverts on CNBC, MSNBC and Fox Business in the US.
The bitcoin ad in Apple Daily was in Chinese and English. The first English sentence featured across the top section of the page says, “Bitcoin will never ditch you”, accompanied by an artistic signature representation of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym behind bitcoin’s creation. Translated, the first Chinese sentence reads: “Banks, it’s not you ditching me today. It’s me ditching you.”
The advert continues in Chinese at the bottom of the page, saying, “Bitcoin is a decentralised, digital currency invented by Satoshi Nakamoto after the financial crisis. On January 3, 2009, bitcoin created the first blockchain, the genesis block. Even though a lot of people remain dismissive of it, it has proven its value time and time again.”
