Legal side to promoting bitcoin.

[Bananington]

You can get in trouble with the SEC as a forum member with celebrity status for promoting cryptocurrency on your social media, but not in trouble with them for promoting just bitcoins. There is a scary SEC rule- that

it is unlawful for any person to publish or give publicity to crypto assets without disclosing the amount they were paid for the promotion.

but I think this rule applies to "securities" and since the SEC considers bitcoin a "commodity",

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has reiterated his claim that bitcoin (BTC) is a commodity.

I do not think it is applicable.  source

Jake Paul, Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Akon, Austin Mahone, Lindsay Lohan and Kendra Lust got into trouble for promoting Tronix (TRX) tokens a securities offered by Tron Foundation Limited. (News report)

Paul Pierce from the NBA got into trouble for promoting EMAX tokens, a securities offered and sold by EthereumMax. EthereumMax does not have any relationship with Ethereum. (News report)

Kim Kardarshian got into trouble for promoting Ethereum Max tokens (News report)

Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled got into trouble for promoting ICO's. (News report)

Do you know any celebrity that has gotten in trouble for promoting bitcoins?

[mindrust]

Nobody gives a damn about any forum celebrities as far as I am aware. The SEC goes after people like Kardashian because these people can affect hundreds of thousand of people with a tweet of theirs. The most famous forum celebrity or even the forum admins can't affect that many people and therefore the SEC won't give a shit about what we say here. Thousands of people shill shitcoins on every dark corner of the internet. Do you expect the SEC to go after all of them? Nope. It is not happening. Shilling crypto is not a crime.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I can't believe they've made it unlawful to talk about cryptocurrency (even shitcoins if easy profit prevails) if you don't disclose the amount of your money. What's the reasoning? Just because Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Dwayne, Messi, or whoever celebrity else, is financially bonded with a cryptocurrency, so what? You know regulators should someday consider the fact that pump 'n dump victims are also responsible for their inclusion in shit-tokens.

[NotATether]

EthereumMax is a shitcoin. Why should celebrities have any reason to promote a shitcoin? I mean think about it. If you were a celebrity, would you accept an offer to promote some Chevrolet model that has a high tendency of breaking down in the middle of the highway, when there are so many better car brands to promote out there? (Not to mention pay better)?

[bittraffic]

Yep, It really is a mess up to see them chase every user on forums promoting altcoins. What sort of popularity would they consider a celebrity status?

If they are then probably the hiring of the 85000 IRS agents is meant to find those celebrity users. But like mindrust said, it's just too much work, I doubt this is happening. And what about the users that are outside USA?

[DaveF]

You can get in trouble with the SEC as a forum member with celebrity status for promoting cryptocurrency on your social media, but not in trouble with them for promoting just bitcoins. There is a scary SEC rule- that

it is unlawful for any person to publish or give publicity to crypto assets without disclosing the amount they were paid for the promotion.

That is it in a nutshell. If you push a stock or a lot of things you have to tell people if and if so, how much you are getting paid to do it.
If nobody is paying you it's a different thing, but if you are then there are rules you have to follow.

I don't know why people think it's such a big deal, it's been that way for a very long time.

-Dave

[panganib999]

I can't believe they've made it unlawful to talk about cryptocurrency (even shitcoins if easy profit prevails) if you don't disclose the amount of your money. What's the reasoning? Just because Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Dwayne, Messi, or whoever celebrity else, is financially bonded with a cryptocurrency, so what? You know regulators should someday consider the fact that pump 'n dump victims are also responsible for their inclusion in shit-tokens.

I think there's some sense to this. Most of the time they advertise shitcoins that wouldn't really go anywhere had it not been for the fact that they are advertised or sponsored by these influential entities. In a sense it looks like manipulation with extra steps so it is quite justified for SEC to go after these people.

On the other hand you are right, it's like the government is stripping people, and celebrities for that matter of the right to be able to express what they want to express sponsored or not. Like if the situation was changed and these people were advertising idk, Mcdonalds? Will the government go after them? No, not really?

[mendace]

It's true that forum celebrities or forum administrators may not have as significant an impact on the market as some well-known celebrities, however, that doesn't mean that the activities carried out within the forum are completely off the radar of the SEC.

 The SEC is tasked with protecting investors and ensuring the transparency of financial markets, including those related to cryptocurrencies.  If there is evidence of market manipulation or violations of financial securities laws, the SEC can step in and take legal action.

I think Bitcoin will become the SEC's number one issue very soon and they won't know how to fix it.

[Findingnemo]

If I am not wrong Elon admitted Bitcoin will be the future of cryptocurrency as well as for Doge but he didn't get any legal issues however he never promoted it he just mentioned it so people get aware also he used the influence to manipulate the prices of multiple times.

Actually no one is going to pay for you to promote bitcoin and there is no need for it as well since most people atleast heard the word bitcoin after 2020.

[Kemarit]

There are a lot of celebrities that have been promoting bitcoin in that past, there was one video of it in youtube. And during the last bull run, there has been like "laser eye" promotion on Twitter with Brady and others as far as I can remember.

But to be honest, I don't think that Bitcoin needs promotion from this celebrities or other sport personalities. If the government think that it is bad, then so be it, we won't be affected by them, we all know that for a fact.

[TribalBob]

as far as I know the celebrities you mention are not promoting bitcoin but they are promoting shit coins, the SEC thinks their popularity will make their followers follow what they are doing and that as we know shit coins can make 2 alternatives that are feared if they end up bankrupt,
the rest, if it's true that artists promote btc, it's safe in my country

[serjent05]

I believe SEC are after people who are got paid big by cryptocurrency projects especially when the project raises funds through crowdfunding.  If you are not paid or didn't get any personal benefit then I think you will be safe from SEC hunt.

I agree that the law has been like that for a long time, people who promoted and got paid for projects that do harm to investors are often get sued or fined by SEC.  There is nothing new except the tool they use to scam people like shitcoins.

[Cryptomiles1]

This forum is free from sec and I don't think any reputable member from here can be affected by SEC because they remains anonymous and there is no way sec can make such alterations that will affect any member or reputable member if this forum. The sec can only effect that with those that promotes newly launched projects but doesn't applicable to bitcoin.

[PX-Z]

You can get in trouble with the SEC as a forum member with celebrity status for promoting cryptocurrency on your social media, but not in trouble with them for promoting just bitcoins.
..
Do you know any celebrity that has gotten in trouble for promoting bitcoins?

If you as an influencer or a celebrity with thousands of millions of followers then you are fit to be charged. But for a homies like us nah. No one will come after you even if you shout in every crypto forums, or subreddits promoting bitcoin lol.

[Maxre]

I think your speculations are not right as you can see that there are a lot of people who promote shit coins and no one gives damn about because they can say that Why you Invest were were just talking because we like this project.
And also SEC won't do anything as there have been a lot of frauds like Solana Crash, FTX collapse, and so Terra Lunna scam and I don't know that how you didn't get anything from these biggest scams in crypto history.

[Solosanz]

This forum is free from sec and I don't think any reputable member from here can be affected by SEC because they remains anonymous and there is no way sec can make such alterations that will affect any member or reputable member if this forum. The sec can only effect that with those that promotes newly launched projects but doesn't applicable to bitcoin.

This forum is centralized, you can visit the privacy page to know if you're not anonymous in this forum. Yeah you're not use your real name in your username, your email doesn't have any relation with your identity, you've use Tor to access this forum, but don't forge the administrator might store your old or first IP address. The situation become worst if you've send your Bitcoin to centralized exchange and your account have been verified.

[livingfree]

You can get in trouble with the SEC as a forum member with celebrity status for promoting cryptocurrency on your social media

I don't think that SEC will go that deep whenever someone who's unknown and anonymous in the forum will advertise a project that seem to be a fraud. The community is the one that will judge that person and the trust feedback would mean a lot but then, the funds that have been swindled are unlikely to be returned.

Do you know any celebrity that has gotten in trouble for promoting bitcoins?

Some were mentioned already on this article: The Disastrous Record of Celebrity Crypto Endorsements

[MusaMohamed]

CFTC considered Bitcoin as the only cryptocurrency as commodity. Previously they considered Ethereum as commodity too but it seems they changed their stance about Ethereum lately.

CFTC's Bitcoin basics in 2018.

You don't commit a crime by promoting Bitcoin but in some countries, you can do illegal things by exchanging Bitcoin to other stuffs as financial trades.

Let's see Cryptocurrency regulations around the world

[Cantsay]

As long as Bitcoin is not affected then I have nothing to worry about.
And I also think it's a good thing because of those celebrity, promoting shitcoins that they know nothing about and then making millions of people who follow them to be scammed.

This forum is free from sec and I don't think any reputable member from here can be affected by SEC because they remains anonymous and there is no way sec can make such alterations that will affect any member or reputable member if this forum.

Are you really sure about this forum being secure from SEC? And they won't be able to get their hands on the details of users here?
You never really can tell what is going on behind the stage and what their next plan is... But one mustn't underestimate what they're capable of doing all the name of decentralization.

[SFR10]

There is a scary SEC rule- that

it is unlawful for any person to publish or give publicity to crypto assets without disclosing the amount they were paid for the promotion.

It's a bit strange that labeling such things as sponsored isn't going to be enough, but they think attaching certain numbers to these things is supposed to magically provide indirect protection to all of the investors ^{[they just want a piece of the pie (SMH)]}!