Spanish regulator raises alarm on Binance promo by soccer star Iniesta

A major financial regulator in Spain has put out a warning regarding soccer star Andrés Iniesta for promoting major cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Iniesta, a prolific midfielder who has played for Barcelona and the Spanish national team, was promoting Binance on his social media profiles on Instagram and Twitter.

On Wednesday, Iniesta posted several pictures of him next to a laptop showing the Binance website on the screen as well as holding a smartphone reflecting several major crypto markets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Binance Coin (BNB).

Hola,@andresiniesta8, los criptoactivos, al ser productos no regulados, tienen algunos riesgos relevantes. Es recomendable leer el comunicado de@CNMV_MEDIOS del 9/2/2021 https://t.co/SWRF73xEJj e informarse a fondo antes de invertir en ellos o de recomendar a otros que lo hagan

— CNMV (@CNMV_MEDIOS) November 24, 2021

At the time of writing, Iniesta has over 38 million subscribers on Instagram and more than 25 million followers on Twitter. The Instagram post had amassed over 270,000 likes by the time of publishing.

Spain’s securities market regulator, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), took to Twitter about 12 hours after Iniesta published the post to warn the player about crypto investment risks.

Citing its regulatory statement from February 2021, the CNMV stressed that investors should be properly informed about crypto and its risks before investing and making financial advice. “Hi Andres Iniesta, cryptoassets carry some significant risks due to being unregulated products,” CNMV wrote.

It is whether Iniesta was offered a retainer for promoting Binance. Cointelegraph has reached out to the soccer player via contacts on Iniesta’s official website and will update this story pending new information.

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The news comes amid Binance continuing its efforts to improve relationships with global regulators as the firm has been scrutinized by multiple governments this year, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Germany and others. 

Some Spanish banks cut support to Binance earlier this year. In July, the United Kingdom branch of Spanish bank Santander said that it will no longer be allowing its customers to send payments to Binance, citing warnings from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.