• French financial regulators have added a number of crypto trading websites to a blacklist of firms operating in France without proper authorization.
• The list is curated by the Autorité des marchés financiers and the Banque de France’s Prudential Supervisory and Resolution Authority.
• The blacklist comprises “unauthorized” firms offering crypto derivatives in France, as well as unregulated forex and securities platforms.
The French financial regulators have recently taken a stand against crypto trading websites operating without proper authorization in France. The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France’s stock market trading regulator, and the Banque de France’s Prudential Supervisory and Resolution Authority (ACPR) have co-curated a list of these firms and added them to a blacklist.
This list includes “unauthorized” firms offering crypto derivatives in France, as well as unregulated forex and securities platforms. The regulators stated that any firm not on the register but offering crypto, forex, or securities trading in France was “in breach of the applicable legislation” and was thus “not required to comply with basic rules of investor protection, information disclosure, and claims handling.”
The list is updated regularly, and the regulators have warned that it is not exhaustive. They believe the blacklisted firms have made unsolicited efforts to contact potential new clients in France, and have strongly recommended the public not to make use of the services of firms whose names do not appear on the ACPR’s Financial Firms Register.
The AMF and the ACPR have also granted operating permission to larger-name crypto players, such as Binance’s French arm, Bitpanda, and eToro, as well as FORGE, the crypto custody subsidiary of the French banking heavyweight Societe Generale. They have also recently caught two notorious crypto scammers who preyed on victims in exclusive ski resorts and luxury hotels.
The regulators urge the public to be cautious when dealing with crypto trading websites, and to make sure they are properly authorized and regulated. They have also warned that unregulated crypto operators could pose dangers to users. They have thus implemented a blacklist of crypto trading websites operating without proper authorization in France in order to protect consumers and ensure they are not exposed to any risks.