Which constituencies are being targeted the most by online political adverts?
When Nigel Farage announced his candidacy, he boasted: “We haven’t spent a bean on Facebook pushes or advertising.”
But the data shows Reform has, in fact, spent a significant number of beans.
More than £3,800 has been spent by the party’s candidate in Great Yarmouth, on more than 50 Facebook and Instagram adverts since the election was called on 22 May.
An advert posted on Facebook by Reform’s candidate in Great Yarmouth
Because tech platforms like Meta and Google publish regular updates to political advertising spending, it’s possible to track which constituencies campaigns are pouring money into. Sky News, in partnership with Who Targets Me, which tracks digital political adverts, can reveal the key battlegrounds so far.
Hendon, Rochester and Strood, Welwyn Hatfield and Croydon South in Greater London and the home counties, and Rossendale and Darwyn in Lancashire, are the places with the biggest ad spend from multiple advertisers – the constituencies where different parties are spending the most to try to swing the election for their candidate.
Hendon tops the list with £26,138 being spent by all parties up until 2 June.
But with different budgets for each party, the amount being spent varies significantly, from hundreds, to thousands, of pounds.
From 22 May to 1 June, Labour has poured the most money into Dover and Deal, with the local candidate spending £19,200.
Hendon has seen the highest Conservative spend, with £25,483 forked out by the local party candidate.
‘I’ve been bombarded with adverts’
Ynys Mon has been another popular place for Tory money, with the party’s candidate spending more than £10,000 on online adverts in the week leading up to 2 June.
Katie Hayward, an award-winning beekeeper in Anglesey (the constituency of Ynys Mon) says she has been bombarded with the ensuing ads and has stopped checking her social media account as a result.
“In the last three weeks. I literally couldn’t go a minute without seeing the MP’s face telling me how wonderful she was, and it must have cost a fortune. But I got to the point where I don’t want to check my Facebook,” she said.
“I’ve just ended up switching off my social media and not being able to look at it because it’s physically made me sick.”
Katie Hayward is a beekeeper from Anglesey
However, Kate Dommett, a professor of digital politics at the University of Sheffield, said “most people really don’t pay that much attention to politics” and this could pose a real challenge to the parties.
Read more: Reform UK may be winning the first TikTok election
She added: “We’re also seeing them turn to more digital media than ever before to use both organic content, but also these paid adverts to really try and get their message across.
“They’re consistently generating content that they can try and maximize the chance that ordinary people will pay attention to what they’re saying.”
Where else are parties targeting?
A smaller party with a smaller budget, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Whitney has spent £2,345 on political advertising.
But the Green Party has spent thousands trying to shore up a win in Bristol Central. No adverts are currently active, according to Meta, but it ran two versions of its most popular ad, which featured Keir Starmer, and reached approximately 30,000 people and cost it up to £4,500. Data shows it targeted under-35s the most.
Amelia Jacob, co-editor of Bristol University’s student newspaper Epigram, said: “It’s mainly on Instagram and Twitter I’ve seen more adverts for the Greens.”
“I’ve really noticed an increase since the election was called – but it hasn’t reached the level of feeling like spamming,” the 22-year-old said.
Read more: The key seats to watch out for in the 2024 election
Sam Jeffers, executive director of Who Targets Me, says it’s extraordinary that the Greens have targeted such a small constituency with the biggest social media spend in the country.
But with the main Green candidate standing down in Brighton, the Greens need an MP and are doing what they can to ensure that happens.
“Bristol has a lot of green councillors and has been a long-term target for the Green Party. So, this is the most sensible place to spend,” Mr Jeffers said.
For the SNP, its candidate in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine attracted the most money – but at £392, this is significantly less than what other parties have spent.
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Plaid Cymru had a similar small spend, putting £366 into three online adverts in Ceredigion Preseli.
The types of adverts being seen on Facebook, specifically, is “very static,” said Professor Dommett, compared to more creative attempts on TikTok (which does not allow paid political advertising).
“Videos of parliament, videos of politicians – there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount that is trying to grab attention,” she said.
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Australia’s financial regulator will seek the High Court’s permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling favoring fintech firm Block Earner, which found the company’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning service is not a financial product.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said on May 21 that it wants to ask the High Court of Australia to clarify what the definition of a financial product is and clarify the circumstances when an interest-earning product and the conversion of assets from one form to another are regulated.
“The definition of financial product was drafted in a broad and technology-neutral way, and ASIC believes it is in the public interest to clarify this,” the watchdog said.
“This clarification is important as it applies to all financial products and services whether they involve crypto-assets or not.”
On April 22, Federal Court Justices David O’Callaghan, Wendy Abraham and Catherine Button found that Block Earner’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning product is not a financial product, a managed investment scheme or a derivative under the Corporations Act.
ASIC said the court will consider its application. Special leave is required in an appeal to the High Court, and it’s only granted in cases where it would answer significant legal questions or matters of public interest.
A Block Earner spokesperson told Cointelegraph the matter has now escalated to a “broader legal question” around the definition of a financial product, which extends “well beyond Block Earner, and the crypto sector.”
“We believe the Full Federal Court’s April ruling was a strong and well-reasoned decision that upheld the integrity of our operations,” the spokesperson said. “We remain confident in the soundness of that judgment and will respond to ASIC’s application through the appropriate legal channels.”
Legal saga ongoing since 2022
ASIC first launched legal proceedings against Block Earner in November 2022, arguing the company needed a financial services license to offer its yield product, which was available from March 17, 2022, until the company shut it down on Nov. 16, 2022.
Related: Australia outlines crypto regulation plan, promises action on debanking
In February 2024, an Australian court initially ruled the fintech firm would need a financial services license to operate its crypto yield-bearing products.
Another June 2024 ruling in Australia’s Federal Court released Block Earner from any financial penalties because it had “acted honestly” and pursued its legal opinions before launching the products, which ASIC appealed.
Block Earner appealed the Federal Court’s decision that it needed a financial services license on July 9, 2024.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.
The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence.
Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.
The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21.
“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.
Related: Tokenized stocks could top $1T in market cap — Execs
Thematic crypto funds
VanEck’s PurposeBuilt Fund is the latest in a series of funds from the asset manager and rivals designed to offer exposure to projects and companies in fast-growing segments of Web3.
On May 14, VanEck launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to invest in stocks and financial instruments providing exposure to the digital economy.
In April, VanEck launched another ETF investing in a passive index of companies operating in the crypto space.
Asset managers such as VanEck are requesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) permission to list upward of 70 crypto ETFs.
The wave of ETF filings is in response to US President Donald Trump softening the agency’s regulatory stance toward crypto after Trump took office in January.
Avalanche RWA ecosystem
Avalanche has emerged as a hub for real-world assets (RWAs) and other institutional-oriented crypto projects.
Its interrelated networks, called subnets, allow institutions to run Ethereum-style smart contracts in a controlled environment. On May 16, Solv Protocol launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche blockchain, targeting institutional investors
Avalanche has around $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of May 21, according to data from DefiLlama.
“We’re seeing a shift away from speculative hype toward real utility and sustainable token economies,” John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said in a statement.
Magazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions — Sky Wee
A Democratic representative in the US Congress will support a blockchain bill at a time when many left-leaning lawmakers are blocking crypto-related pieces of legislation due to concerns with President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
In a May 21 notice, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer said he had reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill that “solidifies that digital asset developers and service providers that do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters.”Emmer, a Republican, said Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres would co-lead the bill, making it a bipartisan effort in Congress.
“The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reflects a thoughtful, bipartisan effort to get digital asset policy right,” said Torres. “While similar language was voted down in markup last Congress, we took that feedback seriously and returned with a smarter, sharper framework that protects innovation without compromising oversight.”
Representatives of advocacy organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Solana Policy Institute, Digital Chamber, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund and Blockchain Association, said they would support the proposed blockchain regulatory bill. It was unclear whether Emmer and Torres had a majority of votes in the House of Representatives for the legislation to pass.
Torres has supported many bills and policies favorable to the crypto industry since assuming office in 2021. Together with Emmer, he has led the Congressional Crypto Caucus to advance crypto-friendly policies in the House since March.
A bipartisan blockchain bill amid memecoin concerns?
Other Democratic House members, including Representative Maxine Waters, have suggested they intend to block any legislation related to crypto and blockchain until Republicans address Trump’s connections to the industry, such as his family’s stake in World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. The president is planning to host a dinner with up to 220 people holding the most significant amounts of his memecoin on May 22.
Related: Interest groups, lawmakers to protest Trump’s memecoin dinner
Cointelegraph reached out to Torres’ office for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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