TikTok ban: Can crypto survive with out TikTok’s affect?

TikTok, the social media platform launched in September 2016, is dealing with a possible ban within the U.S. Will it have an effect on the crypto market?

On Jan. 19, the ban on TikTok within the U.S. will go into impact underneath the Defending People From Overseas Adversary Managed Purposes Act. This laws would make it unlawful for app shops – run by Google and Apple – and web-hosting companies to distribute or service TikTok.

The social media utility, which had an promoting income of $6.2 billion within the U.S. in 2023, has been requested by the Supreme Court docket to both promote the appliance or face a ban.

The legislation cites nationwide safety issues as its most important purpose for the ban, fearing that the Chinese language authorities may entry consumer knowledge collected by TikTok.

Nonetheless, the crypto-friendly President-elect Donald Trump is in search of a choice to beat the ban. Trump even submitted a writ to avoid wasting TikTok’s destiny. Many Senators comparable to Ed Markey have additionally taken a stand in opposition to the ban.

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On Jan. 10, the Supreme Court docket performed the oral arguments on the matter, and a choice is prone to be handed down earlier than the Jan. 19 deadline.

The end result will determine whether or not TikTok will both proceed with an operation underneath the current possession within the U.S. or ByteDance, the dad or mum firm of TikTok, shall be compelled to divest to adjust to a brand new legislation.

Crypto tradition on TikTok

In Oct. 2024, the UK’s Monetary Conduct Authority raised issues concerning TikTok’s digital gifting system. TikTok permits customers to buy TikTok Cash, which allows them to present creators, as reported in Monetary Information.

TikTok Cash had been transformed into “diamonds,” which had been then cashed out, just like how crypto operates. The FCA, nonetheless, nonetheless has expressed fear over the dangers concerned with unregulated crypto actions, starting from cash laundering to insufficient shopper safety.

Nonetheless, this isn’t the primary time TikTok and crypto have joined palms. In reality, in December 2024, Sonic, a Solana (SOL) primarily based gaming-focused layer-2 blockchain, selected TikTok as a platform to airdrop its SONIC token to all customers onboarded by means of the social media app.

Sonic constructed its SonicX sport instantly inside TikTok, hoping to duplicate the success of mini apps constructed on the Toncoin (TON) blockchain inside Telegram. The sport gained over 2 million customers by means of TikTok.

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As per The Drum, social media entrepreneurs have typically used TikTok to begin reviving curiosity in cryptocurrencies with its sizeable house for creating content material that simplifies advanced concepts in graspable varieties that have interaction a youthful tech-savvy viewers.

Additional, in 2020, the viral #DogecoinTiktokChallange was launched, the place crypto influencers pumped up Dogecoin (DOGE) by 20% in per week.

May the ban impression crypto?

Alejandro Zambrano informed crypto.information in a message that whereas unlucky, a TikTok ban within the U.S. is “unlikely to have an effect on the crypto market.”

Zambrano, who’s the Chief Market Strategist at ThinkMarkets, a worldwide on-line brokerage agency that gives companies for foreign exchange, CFDs, and cryptocurrencies, said that TikTok had been suppressing crypto-related content material for years.

“TikTok has been suppressing crypto-related content material for years, rendering its closure largely irrelevant to the business. For example, main crypto influencers on X beforehand experimented with TikTok however garnered restricted views, main them to cease posting on the platform. Furthermore, the highest TikTok accounts at present entice considerably fewer views for comparable content material in comparison with main influencers on X.”

Alejandro Zambrano, Chief Market Strategist at ThinkMarkets

To ban monetary companies and merchandise, together with cryptocurrencies, in Jul. 2021, TikTok amended its content material coverage in a bid to take a agency stand in opposition to deceptive recommendation and high-risk funding schemes.

In mild of the content material ban that had already been imposed, it’s much less prone to have a significant impression on the crypto sector if TikTok had been to be fully banned within the U.S.

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