A booth, a pitch, and a token giveaway can all count as marketing, and the host country’s rules apply. Treat everything you do at the booth as public promotion.
European Union. For EthCC, Signal Week, or the European Blockchain Convention, read the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Article 7 requires marketing communications for a public token offer to be “clearly identifiable as such” and “fair, clear and not misleading.” Article 4 exempts free offers from those rules, yet a crypto-asset “shall not be considered to be offered for free” where recipients must provide personal data in exchange. That matters for any airdrop behind a sign-up form.
United Kingdom. At any UK event, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) applies its financial promotions regime to all firms marketing cryptoassets to UK consumers, “including firms based overseas.” The FCA calls a financial promotion outside its four permitted routes “a criminal offence punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.” Qualifying cryptoassets count as restricted mass market investments, and Handbook rule COBS 4.12A.7R bars any financial promotion of them from offering a retail client “any monetary or non-monetary incentive.”
Dubai. For TOKEN2049 Dubai, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) says in its Marketing Regulations 2024 that “airdrops” and “events held in the Emirate” that help solicit clients may qualify as marketing. A firm without a VARA license may market at a physical event under conditions that include a duty to “not permit any residents of the UAE to sign-up, or onboard as a client, at the event.” Incentives “must receive a compliance confirmation from VARA.”
On-the-spot airdrops, QR-code sign-up bonuses, and banners that promise returns need clearance first. None of this is legal advice, so have counsel check the giveaway before the booth is designed.
