Crypto marketing rules compared: India’s ASCI disclaimer, Dubai’s VARA Marketing Regulations and MiCA’s fair, clear and not misleading standard
Crypto marketing compliance in India, the UAE and the EU rests on three instruments. In India, ASCI’s VDA guidelines fix a mandatory disclaimer on every crypto ad and ban the words currency, securities, custodian and depositories; the Consumer Protection Act 2019 holds the penalty. In Dubai, VARA’s Marketing Regulations 2024 bind anyone marketing in or targeting the UAE, licensed or not, airdrops and influencers included. In the EU, MiCA Articles 7 and 66 require communications that are identifiable, fair, clear and not misleading, with a prescribed statement for token offers.
Three standards in one sentence each
India. A self-regulatory code writes the words and a statute carries the stick: ASCI’s Guidelines for Advertising of Virtual Digital Assets (press release of 23 February 2022, applying to ads from 1 April 2022) prescribe the disclaimer and the banned claims, and the Consumer Protection Act 2019 with the CCPA’s 2022 guidelines lets the Central Consumer Protection Authority order withdrawal, fine and ban endorsers.
Dubai. One binding instrument with a wide reach: VARA’s Regulations on the Marketing of Virtual Assets and Related Activities 2024, dated 31 August 2024 and effective from 1 October 2024, apply to every entity, domestic or foreign, licensed or not, that markets in or targeting the UAE, with fines of up to AED 10,000,000 per violation.
EU. A conduct standard rather than a script: Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 requires marketing communications for token offers (Article 7), ARTs and EMTs (Articles 29 and 53) and CASP services (Article 66) to be identifiable as marketing and fair, clear and not misleading, with one prescribed statement for offers.
The comparison does not extend to ADGM, the DIFC or federal UAE promotion rules; which UAE regulator a business answers to is covered separately. Whether a non-EU firm’s marketing is solicitation under MiCA Article 61 belongs to MiCA reverse solicitation for non-EU exchanges and is not answered here.
Schedule A: the three regimes side by side
| Dimension | India | Dubai (VARA) | EU (MiCA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instrument | ASCI VDA advertising guidelines (ads from 1 April 2022); Consumer Protection Act 2019 s.2(28) and s.21; CCPA misleading-advertisement guidelines of 9 June 2022 | Marketing Regulations 2024, effective 1 October 2024, superseding Administrative Orders 01 and 02 of 2022; a non-binding Guidance alongside | Regulation (EU) 2023/1114: Article 7 (offers and admissions), Articles 29 and 53 (ARTs and EMTs, from 30 June 2024), Article 66 (CASPs); in full from 30 December 2024 |
| Who it binds | ASCI: every ad for VDA products or exchanges, or featuring VDAs. CCPA: all advertisements in any medium, the trader, its agency and any endorser | Any entity, domestic or foreign, licensed by VARA or not, marketing in or targeting the UAE (I.B.1, I.B.2). Marketing of a VA activity only by a VASP licensed for it, or on its behalf with its approval (I.B.3) | Offerors, persons seeking admission and trading-platform operators (Article 7); ART and EMT issuers (Articles 29 and 53); CASPs (Article 66) |
| Mandatory disclaimer text | “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.” Short form for character-limited posts: “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and risky” plus a link | Marketing of a virtual asset itself: a prominent disclaimer that virtual assets may lose their value in full or in part and are subject to extreme volatility, and that the investor can lose all money invested and has no financial protection (I.C.3) | Article 7(1)(e): “This crypto-asset marketing communication has not been reviewed or approved by any competent authority in any Member State of the European Union. The offeror of the crypto-asset is solely responsible for the content of this crypto-asset marketing communication.” ART and EMT issuers: a clear statement of the right of redemption. CASPs: a risk warning, no prescribed wording |
| Banned claims and words | The words currency, securities, custodian and depositories; any promise or guarantee of future profit; past performance under 12 months or shown partially; comparison with any regulated asset class; minors in ads | Safe, low-risk or guaranteed-return language; decisions presented as trivial; past performance as a guide; urgency or fear of missing out; promoting purchase on credit unless VARA-licensed for it; a call to buy in marketing of a virtual asset; small print contradicting the headline; anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies | Anything not fair, clear and not misleading; inconsistency with the white paper; any communication before a required white paper is published (Article 7(2)); for CASPs, misleading a client on the advantages of any crypto-asset (Article 66(2)) |
| Influencer and third-party rules | ASCI: a disclosure label from the permitted list on every post with a material connection; advertiser and influencer both responsible; celebrities to do due diligence. CCPA: genuine endorsements, connections disclosed; s.21(3) endorsement ban up to one year, three on repetition; due-diligence defence in s.21(5) | Remunerated third-party content carries a clear and prominent notification (I.C.2(k)); key opinion leaders get no exemption (I.D.4); the instructing entity stays responsible and the agency is itself liable (I.C.5); platforms geo-block (I.E) | No influencer-specific rule: communications must be identifiable as marketing under Articles 7(1)(a) and 66(2) |
| Record retention | No period stated in the ASCI or CCPA guidelines; substantiation for any objectively ascertainable claim produced on the CCPA’s demand | Eight years from the date the marketing was last conducted, available to VARA on request (I.C.4); platform due-diligence records eight years (I.E) | CASP records five years, up to seven where the competent authority asks in time (Article 68(9)); ART and EMT marketing notified on request |
| Penalty ceiling | ASCI names no fine. CCPA under s.21: up to Rs 10 lakh on a manufacturer or endorser, up to Rs 50 lakh for each subsequent contravention; publisher up to Rs 10 lakh; endorsement ban up to one year, then three | Up to AED 10,000,000 per violation of I.B.3, I.C.2, I.C.3, I.E.1, I.F or I.G.1; up to AED 2,000,000 for I.C.5, I.D and app-store rules; up to AED 500,000 for platform record keeping; a repeat within a year doubles the fine; unpaid fines accrue 1% a month (Schedule 1) | Article 111 minimum ceilings for legal persons: at least EUR 5,000,000 or 3% of turnover (Article 7), 5% (Article 66), 12.5% (ARTs and EMTs); natural persons at least EUR 700,000; national law sets the actual ceiling. Article 94: suspension up to 30 consecutive working days at a time |
| Pre-approval | None | None for advertising as such; incentives need a compliance confirmation from VARA first (I.C.2(l)) | None: the host-state authority assesses after dissemination (Article 7(3)); Articles 29 and 53 bar prior approval of ART and EMT marketing |
Sources: ASCI VDA advertising guidelines; ASCI influencer guidelines; Consumer Protection Act 2019 and the CCPA guidelines 2022; VARA Marketing Regulations 2024 and Schedule 1; Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. All as at 25 September 2026.
India: ASCI writes the words, the CCPA holds the penalty
The ASCI guidelines interpret Chapter 1 of the ASCI Code for virtual digital assets and say in terms that they give the sector no legal recognition: ASCI self-regulates the content of ads the law already permits. The disclaimer is fixed to the letter and its placement prescribed by format: one fifth of the space at the bottom of a print ad, five seconds on screen at the end of a video, upfront in a social caption and again in the picture. Guidelines 3 to 11 ban the claims that sell crypto to retail: no partial or sub-12-month returns, no guaranteed profit, no comparison with a regulated asset class, no minors; and guideline 6 requires every ad to name the advertiser with a phone number or email.
Enforcement is the statutory layer, and it is separate. Section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019 defines a misleading advertisement to include one that deliberately conceals important information, and section 21 lets the CCPA order it withdrawn or modified, fine a manufacturer or endorser up to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 50 lakh for each subsequent contravention), fine a publisher up to Rs 10 lakh and ban an endorser for up to a year, then three. The CCPA’s 2022 guidelines reach the agency and endorser as well as the trader and require claims to be substantiable on demand. ASCI has no fining power of its own; the money risk in India is the CCPA route.
For influencers, ASCI’s digital-media guidelines require a label from a fixed list on any post with a material connection. Addendum II of 17 August 2023 requires influencers advising on stocks or investments to be SEBI-registered; it does not name VDAs, so a crypto influencer’s exposure runs through the disclosure and due-diligence rules rather than a registration requirement. Whether the platform promoted must itself be a registered reporting entity is the FIU-IND question, which comes before any campaign.
Dubai: VARA reaches anyone marketing in or targeting the UAE
The definition does the work. “Marketing” under Regulation I.A is any advertisement, invitation, inducement, solicitation, offer or promotion through any medium, and expressly includes sponsored or influenced material, social posts and endorsements, events in the Emirate, airdrops and educational content. The regulations apply to every entity, domestic or foreign, licensed by VARA or not; the only way out is to be located outside the Emirate, conduct no VA activity in it and do no marketing in or targeting the UAE. Marketing of a VA activity may only be done by a VASP licensed for that activity or on its behalf with its approval, so an unlicensed exchange running Dubai-targeted ads falls outside I.B.3 before anyone reads the copy.
Regulation I.C.2 is the content standard: fair, clear and not misleading in substance and presentation; identifiable as marketing; no contradiction of the stated risk propositions; no safe, low-risk or guaranteed language; no trivialising the decision; no past performance as a guide; no urgency or fear of missing out; no promotion of buying on credit unless licensed for it. Remunerated third-party content carries a clear and prominent notification of the arrangement, and incentives of any kind need VARA’s compliance confirmation before they run, the one pre-clearance step in the instrument. Marketing of a virtual asset itself adds the loss-and-volatility disclaimer, bans any call to buy and bans sending a token to a wallet without prior consent or a clear expression of interest.
The surrounding provisions close the usual gaps. The instructing entity stays responsible for its agency, and the agency is liable in its own right if it fails to check that its client may market in the UAE. Journalists and educators are exempt only where the purpose is not marketing and interests are disclosed; key opinion leaders cannot use either exemption. Platforms must geo-block, and app stores may list VA-activity apps only from VARA-licensed or VARA-approved VASPs. An unlicensed firm may appear at a physical event in the Emirate only within the I.F.1 conditions, including a prominent statement that VARA does not license or regulate it. The licence that makes marketing lawful in the first place is the subject of the VARA licensing service.
EU: MiCA sets a standard, not a script
MiCA regulates marketing at three points. Article 7 covers communications for an offer to the public or admission to trading of a crypto-asset other than an ART or EMT: identifiable as marketing, fair, clear and not misleading, consistent with the white paper where one is required, stating that a white paper has been published with the offeror’s contact details, and carrying the prescribed not-reviewed-or-approved statement. Nothing goes out before the white paper is published; market soundings are unaffected. The small-offer exemptions in Article 4(2) (fewer than 150 persons per Member State, under EUR 1,000,000 over 12 months, or qualified investors only) lift the white paper and publication duties but not the duty to draft any marketing to the Article 7 standard.
Articles 29 and 53 apply the same tests to asset-referenced and e-money token issuers, add a clear statement of the holder’s right of redemption (at par value for EMTs) and forbid competent authorities from requiring prior approval. Article 66 is the CASP rule: information to clients, including marketing communications identified as such, must be fair, clear and not misleading; clients must be warned of the risks of crypto-asset transactions; trading platforms and advisers link to the relevant white papers. Article 66 prescribes no disclaimer wording, so the Article 7 statement should not be pasted into CASP promotions as if it were required there.
Supervision follows dissemination. Article 7(3) gives the authority of the Member State where the communication is disseminated the power to assess it; Article 94 lets an authority order a communication ceased or suspended for up to 30 consecutive working days at a time; and Article 111 requires national fines of at least EUR 5,000,000 or 3% of turnover for Article 7 breaches and 5% for CASP breaches, with Member States setting the actual ceiling. Since the transitional period closed on 1 July 2026 the EU crypto market has been authorised-only, and ESMA’s statement of 23 June 2026 told unauthorised providers to stop marketing to EU clients as part of an orderly wind-down; MiCA vs VARA covers that closure, and the MiCA self-assessment includes marketing among its diagnosis areas.
The ten-item pre-launch marketing checklist
This is the marketing pass Infinilex runs after the entity, classification and licence items in the Web3 legal-readiness checklist and before the first creative is briefed. It sits inside the launch order in launching a token from India, where marketing into India as if “offshore” meant “outside” is a named failure mode.
- Map the audience by market before the creative. Every market the campaign targets or reaches is a regime to satisfy; where a launch touches a regulated activity in a market, that market’s licence question comes first.
- Confirm who is allowed to market at all. In Dubai, marketing of a VA activity needs a VARA-licensed VASP behind it or its approval; in the EU, nothing goes out before a required white paper is published.
- Write each mandated disclaimer to the letter. The ASCI text and its short form; VARA’s loss, volatility and no-financial-protection statements for marketing of a token; the Article 7(1)(e) statement and the white paper reference for an EU offer; the redemption statement for an ART or EMT.
- Strip the banned words and claims. Currency, securities, custodian and depositories in Indian copy; guarantees, safe or low-risk language, urgency and past performance as a guide under VARA; sub-12-month returns and comparisons with regulated assets in India.
- Reconcile the copy with the white paper and the terms. Article 7(1)(c) requires consistency with the white paper; VARA I.C.2(c) and CCPA guideline 11 forbid small print that contradicts the headline. A whitepaper that promised yield while the terms disclaimed it is a named launch failure.
- Paper the influencers and agencies. A label from ASCI’s permitted list and the CCPA endorsement rules in India; the remuneration notification, no KOL exemption and agency due diligence under VARA; identification as marketing in the EU. Contracts carry the edit-or-delete right the advertiser needs.
- Clear incentives and airdrops. Under VARA an airdrop is marketing, an incentive needs a compliance confirmation first and no token goes to a wallet without consent. Whether an EU-targeted airdrop is solicitation is answered in the reverse-solicitation piece.
- Execute the format rules. One fifth of the print space, five seconds of video, caption and image both, same language and font as the claim in India; identifiable as marketing everywhere.
- Name the advertiser and give a contact. ASCI guideline 6 requires the advertiser’s name and a phone number or email; Article 7(1)(d) requires the offeror’s website, telephone number and email address.
- Keep the file. Eight years for every piece of marketing under VARA; five to seven years of CASP records under MiCA; substantiation ready for the CCPA on demand in India. The monitoring side of any promotion runs through the crypto AML programme.
Who signs what on a marketing review
Infinilex runs the review as one file across the three markets. The India leg is signed by an advocate enrolled in India at Infinilex, and the Dubai leg by Infinilex counsel qualified for VARA. For the EU, Infinilex scopes the work, builds the fact record and briefs the EU local counsel who sign any opinion on MiCA or regulator-facing filing; those counsel are brought into the engagement explicitly and named to the client before they act. Where the campaign promotes a token, the marketing pass sits on top of the classification already recorded in a token legal opinion, one leg per market.
Frequently asked questions
What disclaimer must a crypto advertisement carry in India?
ASCI guideline 1.1 fixes the words: 'Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.' In print it fills at least one fifth of the ad space at the bottom; in video it stays on screen at least five seconds at the end, repeated at the start of videos over two minutes; in social posts it sits upfront in the caption and in the image. Where characters are limited, the short form 'Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and risky' plus a link is used. The CCPA guidelines add that a disclaimer matches the claim's language.
Do the VARA marketing regulations apply to a foreign exchange with no Dubai licence?
Yes, if the marketing is in or targeting the UAE. Regulations I.B.1 and I.B.2 apply the 2024 Marketing Regulations to every entity, domestic or foreign, licensed by VARA or not. An entity is outside them only if it is not located in the Emirate, conducts no VA activity there and does no marketing in or targeting the UAE (I.B.5). Marketing of a VA activity may only be carried out by a VASP licensed by VARA for that activity, or on its behalf with its approval (I.B.3). An unlicensed firm may present at a physical event in the Emirate only within the I.F.1 conditions.
Do crypto influencers in India have to disclose paid promotions?
Yes. ASCI's influencer guidelines require a disclosure label on every post with a material connection to the advertiser, whether money, free products, discounts, gifts, trips or employment, even where the opinion is the influencer's own. Permitted labels include Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership and the platform's own paid-partnership tag, placed where a viewer sees it and not buried in hashtags or behind 'MORE'. Responsibility sits with both advertiser and influencer. Under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 the CCPA can ban an endorser of a misleading advertisement for up to one year, and up to three years on repetition, unless the endorser exercised due diligence to verify the claims.
What does MiCA Article 7 require in a crypto marketing communication?
Article 7(1) requires a marketing communication for an offer to the public or admission to trading of a crypto-asset other than an ART or EMT to be clearly identifiable as marketing, fair, clear and not misleading, consistent with the white paper where one is required, and to state that a white paper has been published with the offeror's website, telephone number and email address. It must carry the prescribed statement that the communication has not been reviewed or approved by any competent authority in any Member State and that the offeror is solely responsible for it. Where a white paper is required, nothing is disseminated before it is published.
Does VARA or an EU regulator pre-approve crypto advertising?
Neither regime pre-clears advertising as such. Under the VARA Marketing Regulations the only pre-clearance is for incentives: any monetary or non-monetary incentive tied to a virtual asset or VA activity must receive a compliance confirmation from VARA before it runs (I.C.2(l)). MiCA Article 7 has no approval or advance-notification step; the competent authority of the Member State where the communication is disseminated assesses it after the fact, and Articles 29 and 53 expressly forbid competent authorities from requiring prior approval of ART and EMT marketing, which must instead be notified on request. In India neither ASCI nor the CCPA guidelines require pre-approval.
Launching a campaign that touches India, Dubai or the EU?
Send us the markets, the channels, the creative and the influencer list. We map which of the three instruments each piece answers to and return the marketing file, disclaimers and contract terms included, before the first post goes live.
Further reading
Launching a token from India · Web3 legal-readiness checklist · MiCA vs VARA · MiCA reverse solicitation for non-EU exchanges · MiCA self-assessment · Stablecoin issuance · Crypto AML programme
This article is general information for founders and marketing teams, not legal advice on any campaign. The ASCI, CCPA, VARA and MiCA provisions are stated as at 25 September 2026, VARA provisions from the version dated 31 August 2024, and the page is re-verified quarterly; how any rule applies turns on the audience, the channel and the facts of the promotion.