The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints against a series of advertisements for cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, ruling that they were socially “irresponsible” and must not appear again in their current form.
The ruling relates to one Video on Demand (VOD) advertisement and three poster ads seen in August 2025. The campaign used satire to depict everyday financial pressures, including rising living costs, difficulties buying a home and stagnant wages.
Given the broad reach of the VOD and poster ads, the ASA said it was likely that consumers experiencing financial difficulties would see them and be “vulnerable to the implication that Coinbase and cryptocurrency could address their financial concerns”.
The VOD ad showed working adults singing an upbeat song about economic hardships while repeating the refrain “everything is just fine”.
Scenes included a family home in disrepair during a power cut, a littered high street with boarded-up shops, and a supermarket displaying higher prices.
As the ad progressed, a sewage pipe burst and the characters continued dancing, while a wealthy couple sang about leaving the country for Dubai.
The ad ended with the on-screen text “IF EVERYTHING’S FINE DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING”, followed by the Coinbase logo.
The poster ads used a similar slogan.
Against a blue background filled with small white text repeating “EVERYTHING IS FINE”, negative space revealed messages including “HOME OWNERSHIP OUT OF REACH”, “EGGS NOW OUT OF BUDGET” and “REAL WAGES STUCK IN 2008”.
Each poster also carried the phrase “IF EVERYTHING’S FINE DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING” alongside the Coinbase logo.
The ASA said 35 complainants challenged whether the ads were irresponsible, arguing that they trivialised the risks of cryptocurrency and implied it could be a solution to widespread financial concerns.
In its response, CB Payments Ltd, trading as Coinbase, said it did not believe the ads were irresponsible.
The company said consumers had become more informed about cryptocurrency, citing Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) research showing increased awareness and ownership of cryptoassets.
Coinbase argued that cryptoasset businesses were distinct from industries such as gambling, alcohol and tobacco, and referred to HM Treasury’s 2023 response rejecting proposals to regulate retail cryptocurrency trading as gambling.
The company said the VOD ad was “purposely and obviously exaggerated for entertainment purposes” and that consumers would understand it as satire.
It said the ads did not include calls to action and were intended to be thought-provoking, not to suggest specific solutions to economic problems.
Coinbase also said the tagline “If everything’s fine don’t change anything” was not a claim, but a humorous phrase designed to prompt reflection.
It argued that consumers would not reasonably interpret the ads as suggesting cryptocurrency or Coinbase could solve individual financial hardship.
The company added that it did not believe the ads trivialised risk, pointing to its appropriateness assessments, cooling-off periods and risk warnings.
The ASA rejected those arguments and upheld the complaints.
In its assessment, the regulator said consumers would understand the phrase “If everything’s fine, don’t change anything” as sarcastic, referring to “widespread economic issues”.
It said that by pairing the slogan with the Coinbase logo, the ads positioned Coinbase “as an alternative to traditional financial systems, and impl[ied] that Coinbase could be part of the solution to the financial problems stated in the ads”.
The ASA noted that while awareness of cryptocurrency had increased, the FCA found that only 12% of UK adults owned cryptoassets, and that cryptocurrency was largely unregulated and high risk, with buyers needing to be prepared to lose all their money.
The regulator said that although the VOD ad was satirical, it was based on real financial concerns that many consumers experienced.
It concluded that using humour alongside a prompt to “change” risked presenting “complex, high-risk financial products as an easy or obvious response to those concerns”.
The watchdog concluded that, because the ads implied cryptocurrency could be an alternative to cost-of-living pressures, they trivialised the risks of crypto investment and were therefore irresponsible. The ads were found to breach rule 1.3 of the CAP Code on social responsibility.
The ASA ordered that the ads must not appear again in the form complained of and told Coinbase to ensure future advertising does not “irresponsibly trivialise the risks of cryptocurrency, or imply it was a solution to prevalent financial concerns.”
