The French financial watchdog, the AMF (Autorite des Marches Financiers) has warned about 15 unauthorized cryptocurrency investment and exchange platforms. The regulator issued the warning Thursday and went ahead to publish a list of the 15 blacklisted companies. The AMF is an independent public agency whose responsibility is to safeguard investments and maintain orderly financial markets in France.
The agency said that the 15 crypto investment and exchange platforms are “unauthorized firms proposing atypical investment without proper authorization to do so.” Some of the investments the companies are said to market include “rare earths, crypto assets, and diamonds,” wrote the AMF. The financial regulator noted that since July 2017, it has been listing unauthorized diamond investment firms. In December 2017, the AMF added “other miscellaneous assets” to its list which now includes trading platforms proposing investments in “cryptocurrency assets,” many of which are often presented as cryptocurrencies.
AMF’s warning comes just days after a Belgian financial regulator, the FSMA (Financial Services and Marketing Authority) also issued a warning and listed 19 crypto trading platforms that are suspected of conducting fraudulent crypto activities. The FSMA had received several complaints about the operations of the 19 companies. The AMF has pointed out that the list is not complete neither is it exhaustive of all crypto investment platforms that are not complying with France’s regulations and asked the public to be wary.
Investment platforms must be AMF-approved
The agency stated that the addition of the crypto platforms to its list was in accordance with the law, particularly “Law No. 2016-1691 of December 9th, 2016, which is about transparency and the fight against graft,” the regulator wrote. The agency went on to explain that following that law, “no miscellaneous asset offers can be marketed directly in the country without a prior allocation of a unique registration number by the AMF.” AMF officials say that despite their “warning regarding the new regulation, the 15 investments and exchange firms that have been listed have continued to advertise and market assets to the public.”
The companies are: Bank-Crypto, Bit-Crypto, AKJ-Crypto, Crypteo, Bcoin-bank, Cryptobankweb, Cryptopartnersinvest, Crypto-major, Boursebitcoin, Crypto.private-finance, Crypto2.bnd-group, Ether-invest, Minedecrypto, ECS-solutions, and Krakenaccess.
Safety Investing Guidelines
The financial regulator pointed out a few safety guidelines that it says investors should consider every time before investing. For instance, “no type of advertisement or advertisement material should lure you into investing while overlooking the fact that, often, high returns involve substantially high risks.”
The AMF also advised investors to find as much information as they can about the intermediaries or companies trying to sell them products. Vital information to ask for includes certification or authorization, the history of the company, head offices’ location, etc. You should “only invest in products, and with companies they understand,” the agency added.
Also, the financial regulator urged potential investors to always ask themselves “by whom and how the selling price of products being advertised is set.” They should also find out about the “timeline and precise terms for selling such products, particularly in scenarios where the products invest in asset classes with low liquidity.”
