Resolution no. 20847

Order, pursuant to Article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance performed through the https://cryptoeu.co website

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA
[THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COMPANIES AND THE STOCK EXCHANGE]

HAVING REGARD TO Law no. 216 of June 7, 1974, and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of February 24, 1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the https://cryptoeu.co website, it emerged that:

i. the https://cryptoeu.co website, registered anonymously, is also available in Italian and has no mechanism in place to prevent the registration of Italian users;

ii. potential investors, subject to prior registration to the website and the opening an account through the specific registration procedure, are offered the opportunity of carry out ' online Crypto trading' on '800+ Cryptocurrencies' through a dedicated platform;

iii. in order to perform trading transactions, an investment of money is required, to be paid into the account opened online; in particular, two types of account are available that are named according to the minimum deposit required and the promised benefits('Basic' and 'Advanced');

iv. at the footer of each pages of the said website, the ' Columbia Group Capital LTD' company, with declared office in the Marshall Islands, is mentioned as the entity to which the website would be attributable.

HAVING CONSIDERED that the activity carried out via the said website qualifies as the provision of investment services as referred to in Art. 1, para. 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the aforementioned operations performed via the https://cryptoeu.co website are addressed to the public of Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian and the performance of cold calling has been reported to us;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the company mentioned on the said website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the dedicated register held by CONSOB pursuant to Art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for authorised entities as referred to under article 18, para. 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, ' The professional provision of investment services and activities for the public is reserved for investment firms and banks';

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question can be classed as the professional provision of investment services involving financial instruments to the Italian public, in infringement of Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to Art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance - 'Powers to counteract abuse' - CONSOB 'may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities through the Internet without being qualified therefore pursuant to this decree:  a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the circumstance that the party is not authorised to carry out the activity indicated by article 1, paragraph 5; b) order that the infringement cease';

HEREBY RESOLVES:

The order is issued to cease the infringement of Art .18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the site https://cryptoeu.co consisting of the offering and performance of services and investment activities towards the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned and published in CONSOB's Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of service.

March 13, 2019

THE DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
Anna Genovese