Google announced on Wednesday that in June company will ban ads for cryptocurrencies and related products like Initial Coin Offerings, largely unregulated crowdsales that can raise millions of dollars from investors.
Google’s ad network, AdSense, is a giant in the online advertising industry and paid out $12.6 billion to publisher partners last year, the company stated in a report accompanying the policy announcement on Wednesday. An AdSense blockade is yet another big hit to the cryptocurrency industry, which lost access to a marketing goldmine in January when Facebook banned ads for virtual currencies and ICOs on its platform.