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UK cryptoasset financial promotions: a guide for exchange marketing teams

By the Samoha team · Sep 28, 2026 · 11 min read

Since 8 October 2023, marketing a cryptoasset exchange to people in the UK has meant working inside the FCA's financial promotions regime. It is not a light-touch disclosure rule. It decides who is allowed to publish your ads at all, what words must appear in them, what you can offer to get people to sign up, and what has to happen before a new customer sees a buy button.

This guide is written for exchange and wallet marketing teams. It walks through the rules in COBS 4.12A and the FCA's policy statement PS23/6, then turns them into decisions for campaigns, onboarding and partners. Rule numbers and quoted wording come from the FCA Handbook as published. It is a working reference, not legal advice, and the Handbook changes, so check the current text before you rely on it.

Start with the route, not the creative

The first question is not what the ad says but who is allowed to communicate it. PS23/6 (paragraph 1.15) sets out four routes to lawfully promoting cryptoassets to UK consumers:

the promotion is communicated by an FCA-authorised person;
it is made by an unauthorised person but approved by an authorised person;
it is communicated by, or on behalf of, a cryptoasset business registered with the FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations, relying on the exemption in Article 73ZA of the Financial Promotion Order; or
it otherwise complies with an exemption in the Financial Promotion Order.

PS23/6 is blunt about the alternative: promotions not made through one of these routes breach section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, "a criminal offence punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment, the imposition of a fine, or both" (paragraph 1.18). The regime applies to firms marketing cryptoassets to UK consumers regardless of whether the firm is based overseas.

A few details trip teams up:

E-money and payments licences do not count. PS23/6 (paragraph 1.16) says a firm authorised only under the Electronic Money Regulations or the Payment Services Regulations is not an "authorised person" for this purpose and cannot communicate or approve these promotions.
A registered firm can promote its own business, not approve others. The Article 73ZA exemption lets MLR-registered cryptoasset businesses communicate their own promotions. The FCA Handbook guidance at COBS 4.10 states that a registered person is not able to approve a financial promotion, so it cannot sign off an affiliate's or influencer's content as an s21 approver.
Approvers need permission. Under the gateway introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, authorised firms that want to approve promotions for unauthorised persons need FCA permission to do so. The FCA's PS23/13 set 7 February 2024 as the date the gateway came fully into force, subject to exemptions.

Write the route down for every market and every channel before a brief goes out. If nobody can name the route, the campaign is not ready for UK audiences.

The risk warning: exact wording, fixed placement

Qualifying cryptoassets are "restricted mass market investments", and COBS 4.12A.10R requires any promotion of them to a retail client to carry the risk warning set out in COBS 4.12A.11R. For qualifying cryptoassets the full wording is:

Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

Where the full warning exceeds the character limit of a third-party marketing provider, COBS 4.12A.11R(2) allows the shorter version: Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest.

For websites, apps and other digital media, COBS 4.12A.11R(3) adds a link in the form "Take 2 mins to learn more", which must open an appropriate risk summary in a pop-up or equivalent, selected from COBS 4 Annex 1R.

Placement is as prescribed as the words. COBS 4.12A.36R requires the warning to be prominent given the content, size and orientation of the promotion; clearly legible, within its own border, in bold and underlined text; on a website or app, statically fixed and visible at the top of the screen, below anything else that stays static, even as the user scrolls, and repeated on each linked page relating to the investment; and on television, prominently fixed on screen for the whole broadcast. COBS 4.12A.38R bans any design feature that has the intent or effect of reducing the warning's visibility. The FCA also expects firms to take account of the latest WCAG accessibility standard (COBS 4.12A.37G).

For marketing teams, that translates into a few build rules:

Put the warning component into the site and app design system as a sticky element, not a per-page afterthought.
Use the full warning wherever it fits. Use the short version only where a third-party platform's character limit forces it, and keep evidence of that limit.
Do not stylise the wording. Changing "Don't" to "Do not", dropping the bold or underline, or fading the border all move you away from the prescribed form.
Check every template: landing pages, blog posts that link to sign-up, app store screenshots, email footers and push notifications.

COBS 4.12A.4R excludes image advertising from the section, but treat that narrowly. Once a piece of content invites or induces someone to invest, it is a promotion.

No incentives to invest

COBS 4.12A.7R prohibits communicating or approving a promotion for a restricted mass market investment that offers a retail client "any monetary or non-monetary incentive". The guidance at COBS 4.12A.8G lists examples: bonuses for investing, referral bonuses, cashback, fee discounts linked to trading volumes, free gifts after investing, and free or discounted investments. PS23/6 describes the ban as covering things like "refer a friend" and new-joiner bonuses.

COBS 4.12A.9G sets out what is not an incentive: information and research tools, and lower fees not linked to trading volumes that are available to all retail clients. For exchange growth teams that rules out most standard fintech acquisition mechanics for UK users: sign-up credits, referral rewards, trading-volume fee tiers promoted as a reason to buy, and "free crypto" giveaways tied to investing. Growth programmes that rely on them need a UK-specific version. See our crypto exchange marketing guide for channel strategy that does not depend on bonuses.

The onboarding journey: four conditions before a direct offer

A direct offer financial promotion (DOFP) is one that lets a customer act on it directly, typically the point in your app or site where a new user can buy. COBS 4.12A.15R says a firm must not communicate a DOFP for a restricted mass market investment to a retail client unless four conditions are met.

1. The 24-hour cooling-off period (COBS 4.12A.18R)

After the client asks to receive the DOFP, the firm must allow "a period of at least 24 hours" to elapse, then invite the client to choose whether to leave the investment journey or continue, with the options presented with equal prominence. The client must choose to continue. COBS 4.12A.19G makes clear the firm can still engage with the client during the 24 hours, including giving the personalised risk warning and gathering information for the appropriateness assessment. PS23/6 clarifies that the cooling-off period applies to first-time investors with a specific firm, not to each individual transaction, and does not stop firms showing information such as prices.

2. The personalised risk warning (COBS 4.12A.20R)

The firm must obtain the client's full name and show this warning: "[Client name], this is a high-risk investment. How would you feel if you lost the money you're about to invest? Take 2 mins to learn more."

3. Client categorisation (COBS 4.12A.21R)

The firm must take reasonable steps to establish that the client is certified as a high net worth investor, a certified sophisticated investor or a restricted investor, using the statements in the COBS 4 annexes signed within the previous 12 months (COBS 4.12A.22R). Note that self-certified sophisticated investor status is available only for the product types listed in COBS 4.12A.21R(2), which do not include qualifying cryptoassets.

4. Appropriateness (COBS 4.12A.28R)

Before processing an order that responds to the DOFP, the firm must assess that the investment is appropriate for the client in line with COBS 10 or COBS 10A, as modified by COBS 4.12A.30R to 4.12A.32R.

PS23/6 explains that the positive frictions (cooling-off and personalised warning) apply to first-time investors with the firm, while categorisation and appropriateness also apply where a firm makes a DOFP to an existing customer. Marketing owns more of this than it might seem: the copy around the "continue" and "leave" choices, the tone of reminder emails sent during the 24 hours, and whether any in-journey messaging pushes people past the frictions. None of it should pressure a user to continue.

Who can approve what, and what that means for partners

If your exchange is MLR-registered rather than authorised, you can communicate your own promotions but you cannot approve anyone else's. COBS 4.1.7DG, as set out in PS23/6, says a registered person must comply with the relevant form and content rules, including COBS 4.12A, and must keep records of the promotions it communicates under COBS 4.11.

That matters for affiliates and influencers. An unauthorised creator who promotes your exchange to UK followers in the course of business needs their own lawful route, and your registration does not supply it. In practice teams choose between producing promotions themselves and communicating them through their own channels, using an authorised s21 approver with gateway permission, or not running UK creator campaigns. Where an authorised firm does approve content, COBS 4.10.2R requires it to monitor continuing compliance, obtain attestations from the unauthorised person at least every three months while the promotion runs, and withdraw its approval if it becomes aware the promotion no longer complies.

A working checklist for exchange marketing teams

Route: named route for UK promotions, owner, and evidence (authorisation, MLR registration or approver details).
Warning: exact COBS 4.12A.11R wording; short version only where a platform limit forces it; "Take 2 mins to learn more" link and risk summary on digital media.
Placement: sticky, bordered, bold and underlined on web and app; fixed on screen for TV; no design features that reduce visibility.
Incentives: no sign-up, referral, cashback, volume-linked or gift incentives in UK promotions.
Journey: 24-hour cooling-off with equal-prominence choices, personalised warning, categorisation and appropriateness in place before any DOFP.
Partners: no affiliate or influencer UK content without a lawful route; approvals monitored and attested.
Records: copies of every promotion as published, with dates and sign-offs, kept outside the platforms.

We build these checks into briefs and review files rather than bolting them on at the end. How a compliance-led finance marketing engagement works describes that process, and our methodology sets out how we map rules by market before drafting. For leveraged products, the equivalent disclosure rules are covered in CFD risk warnings in ads.

FAQ

Can we use the short risk warning everywhere to save space?

No. COBS 4.12A.11R(2) allows the shorter wording only where the full warning exceeds the characters permitted by a third-party marketing provider. Owned channels with space for the full warning should use it.

Does the 24-hour cooling-off apply to every trade?

No. PS23/6 states it applies to first-time investors with a specific firm, not to each individual transaction.

Is a "no trading fees for all users" message an incentive?

COBS 4.12A.9G says lower fees or charges not linked to trading volumes and available to all retail clients are not a monetary incentive. Fee discounts tied to trading volume are listed as incentives in COBS 4.12A.8G.

We are registered with the FCA. Can we approve our influencers' posts?

No. A registered person cannot approve financial promotions. The exemption covers communicating your own promotions only.

Sources

Last reviewed: 28 September 2026.