Is YouTube Cracking Down On Crypto? Community Up In Arms

A string of recent bans by YouTube on popular crypto channels were met with widespread ire by the crypto community.

Bankless, the most notable of the lot, was restored to the platform on Monday after a barrage of criticism against the streaming platform.

The channel, which is among the most popular YouTube crypto channels with over 150,000 subscribers, said there was no warning or justification provided for the ban.

YouTube gives little information over the bans

But Bankless is not the only crypto channel facing YouTube’s ban hammer. Aave founder Stani Kulechov noted that the platform had banned other educational web3 accounts as well, including Gabriel Haines and Optimism PBC.

While YouTube said it will look into the other two accounts, their channels appear to be inaccessible as of press time.

Bankless said the platform had given it no warning or justification for the ban. Haines confirmed his channel’s removal on Twitter, and said that the platform had deleted his channel because of “inactivity-” something he denied.  All of Haines’ channel content also appears to be permanently deleted, without warning.

Optimism is yet to issue a statement on the matter. Crypto Love, a YouTube channel, also appeared to have been recently banned, and is appealing against the ban.

Crypto community opposes the bans

Several voices on Twitter derided the bans, especially given that they were issued without warning or justification.

Users also criticized the fact that YouTube had targeted educational channels such as Bankless. They noted that the platform still allowed several other channels peddling crypto-linked scams within its limits.

Users also called for a decentralized alternative to YouTube. Kulechov, who was recently banned and allowed back on Twitter over a joke tweet, mused over building such an alternative.

Kulechov recently launched a decentralized alternative to Twitter, called the Lens Protocol.

With more than five years of experience covering global financial markets, Ambar intends to leverage this knowledge towards the rapidly expanding world of crypto and DeFi. His interest lies chiefly in finding how geopolitical developments can impact crypto markets, and what that could mean for your bitcoin holdings. When he isn’t trawling through the web for the latest breaking news, you can find him playing videogames or watching Seinfeld reruns.
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