Spanish Watchdog Chides Ex-Barcelona Star, Iniesta, for Promoting Crypto on Social Media

Femi Ashekun/

Spain’s National Securities Market Commission has said athletes and influencers have “responsibility” to remind followers of crypto risks, after it chided one of the country’s football heroes and former Barcelona star, Andrés Iniesta, for promoting digital asset platform Binance, in a social media exchange.

According to Financial Times, the Spanish regulator responded to Iniesta, after he posted on Twitter pictures of himself apparently using the Binance platform.

The tweet by the watchdog, sent late on Wednesday, reminded Iniesta that “cryptoassets, as non-regulated products, have some relevant risks”.

The Spanish watchdog’s intervention comes as promotions of crypto exchanges and tokens in sport have boomed. Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com last week agreed to pay $700m for 20-year naming rights at the Los Angeles arena that is home to the championship Lakers basketball team.

The commission urged celebrities and influencers to “take care” about recommending “investment in unregulated products that have additional risks to (the) public”.

“All this led us last night to say to Iniesta, whom we admire and who has brought us great joy, please, before recommending this, tell your followers of the risks; this is also your responsibility,” the watchdog said.

Rakuten — which owns Vissel Kobe, the Japanese club for which Iniesta plays — owns a crypto exchange itself.

Iniesta is not the only well-known footballer to have posted an endorsement for Binance. Raúl Jiménez, who plays for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, Colombian player James Rodríguez and Atlético Madrid striker Luis Suárez all posted images of themselves featuring Binance earlier this month under the #BinanceForAll hashtag.

The three footballers have a combined 39m followers on Twitter.

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