The rule.
Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, paragraphs (1)–(2):
“Any marketing communications relating to a public offer of a crypto-asset other than an asset-referenced token or an e-money token, or to the admission to trading of such a crypto-asset, shall comply with all of the following requirements:
(a) the marketing communications are clearly identifiable as such;
(b) the information in the marketing communications is fair, clear and not misleading;
(c) the information in the marketing communications is consistent with the information in the crypto-asset white paper, where such a crypto-asset white paper is required …”
Parallel obligations apply under Article 29 (asset-referenced tokens) and Article 53 (e-money tokens). The standard is identical.
What it requires.
Identifiable as marketing. Every promotional page, ad, post, or video must be recognisable as marketing. An op-ed-styled page hiding its commercial intent fails.
Fair. Benefit claims must be balanced. “Earn up to 24% APY” without paired, prominent capital-loss risk fails; the threshold is comparative prominence.
Clear. Technical claims must be substantiated and understandable to the target audience. “Backed by blockchain technology” alone does not satisfy clarity.
Not misleading. Selective data, partial backtests, undated claims, comparisons without methodology, “guaranteed,” “risk-free,” “safe,” “the best,” “the only” — all flagged. The standard is “not misleading,” not “technically defensible.”
Common violations.
“Earn up to 24% APY on stablecoins.”
No paired risk language above the fold; capital-loss disclosure 1,400 pixels down. Fails Article 88(1)(b). “Up to” is not a cure — the EU case law is settled.
“The fastest-growing RWA platform in Europe.”
No date, methodology, source, or definition. Fails Article 88(1)(b) on misleading; captures 88(1)(c) if the whitepaper says otherwise.
“The safest place to hold your crypto.”
Fails Article 88(1)(b). “Safe” is one of the highest-priority flags in NCA enforcement.
How to comply.
Every hero benefit claim gets its paired risk statement in the same visual frame — same column, weight, and vertical position. Footers do not satisfy parity.
Replace superlatives with quantified, dated, sourced claims: “Largest tokenised treasury platform in Europe by AUM, €X.X B as of March 2026 (source: rwa.xyz).”
Remove “guaranteed,” “risk-free,” “safe,” “the best,” “the only,” “100%” unless literally and provably true. These are NCA flag words.
Visible identification on every promotional surface: the native “Paid partnership” / “Sponsored” label on paid social, a clear disclosure on long-form pages.
Map every marketing claim to a whitepaper sentence. If the whitepaper says “variable yield,” the landing page cannot say “stable yield.”
Related rules.
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The parity rule: how prominent the risk warning must be.
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Marketing must match the published whitepaper.
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The UK equivalent, with a stricter wording requirement.
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