The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced on Thursday new regulations for the advertising of crypto assets to the public. Under the tougher rules, crypto firms must ensure that British investors have “appropriate knowledge and experience to invest in crypto” and are duly warned by promoters about associated risks.

The measures include banning ‘refer a friend’ bonuses, a marketing policy quite popular in the crypto space. The FCA also requires companies advertising crypto assets to U.K. consumers to introduce a cooling-off period for first time investors from Oct. 8, 2023.

The latter begins when a potential investor responds to crypto advertising materials by requesting additional information, the FCA explained, quoted by Bloomberg. The entity marketing the investment must then wait 24 hours before responding to the customer’s request.

The updated rules follow government legislation to bring crypto promotions into the regulator’s remit, the watchdog noted, adding that its approach regarding crypto promotion is consistent with the rules that the FCA imposed last year to tackle misleading financial adverts.

The FCA further remarked that the new regulations enter into force after its own research showed that the estimated crypto ownership in the U.K. has more than doubled in 2022, compared to the previous year. It said that 10% of 2,000 people polled revealed they owned cryptocurrencies.