In February, Spain will start requiring influencers and sponsors promoting cryptocurrencies to pre-notify authorities and warn of investing risks or face fines
Financial Times
Context & Ripple Effects
The rule lands amid a broader Spanish push to police speculative digital markets: the same government that is now drafting multimillion-euro fines for unlabeled AI content had already moved on influencer-led crypto promotion after investor-protection concerns surfaced in an unregulated sector. The pre-notification requirement effectively turns every sponsored crypto post into a regulated communication.
First-order effects
Influencers and sponsors promoting crypto to Spanish audiences must now clear each campaign with authorities before it runs and carry risk warnings, with fines as the enforcement backstop.
Second-order effects
Crypto firms lose their cheapest marketing channel in Spain, pushing promotion toward compliant disclosure formats — while the UK's parallel move to classify crypto as restricted mass market investments under tough new FCA advertising rules signals that paid-influencer crypto marketing faces tightening across major European markets.
Third-order effects
Spain's pattern of precautionary intervention — from this notification regime to blocking Polymarket and Kalshi pending a gambling probe — points toward a standing supervisory posture over retail-facing digital assets rather than one-off crackdowns.
The trend: European regulators are shifting crypto oversight from sector-specific licensing to policing the retail marketing layer itself, with Spain and the UK converging on influencer and advertising controls.
In Spain, “crypto advertisers will need to release the content of their upcoming campaigns to the CNMV, and they must include warnings about the risks of what they're selling.” The rules apply to influencers with more than 100,000 subscribers. https://www.theverge.com/...
If you want to see a draconian crackdown by an EU state, go look to see what the Italian banks do to crypto receipts, or ask @gbponz https://www.ft.com/...
In a first for the EU, Spain is imposing restrictions on influencers' promotion of cryptocurrencies as European authorities struggle to get to grips with the unregulated sector (Comes after furore over Iniesta crypto post for Binance)... in @FT https://www.ft.com/...
lmao imagine living in a place where the rulers measure your followers and force you to report to them when you post something 😂 https://twitter.com/...
Spain to crack down on crypto influencer posts: FT Influencers with more than 100k followers in Spain will have to notify the watchdog of the content of their crypto promotions with at least 10 days of notice. Fines for non-compliance could reach €3... https://www.ft.com/...