Resolution no. 22125

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 carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com and https://cointrade.cc websites

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 7 June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the website, it emerged that:

i. the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain consisting of a single webpage, which is available in Italian and concerns the promotion of investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies, hosts a registration form on it that interested users are invited to fill in by entering their personal data such as name, surname and email address;

ii. once the registration procedure has been completed by filling in the form available in the aforementioned www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain, the user is routed to the separate https://cointrade.cc website, through which, after registering and opening an account, they are offered the opportunity of carrying out trading transactions involving financial instruments such as CFDs on shares, commodities and indices;

iii. as to the traceability of the aforementioned activities, the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain bears a generic reference to "Bitcoin-evolutionpro", without any indication of its corporate details; with reference to the https://cointrade.cc website, at the bottom of its web pages it specifies that the site "is owned and operated by Twingle Consulting LTD [...]" with its stated registered office in the Commonwealth of Dominica;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com and https://cointrade.cc domains can be classed as the offering and provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

WHEREAS an activity is being carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain that can be linked to distance marketing of third party investment services, insofar as through the said domain users are invited, including with the prospect of economic returns, to open an account to carry out trading transactions on the separate https://cointrade.cc website to which users are routed after completing the registration procedure;

WHEREAS likewise the activity carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain can be classed as distance marketing of investment services, an activity reserved to intermediaries authorised pursuant to article 18 to provide investment placement services;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://cointrade.cc website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services, given that users are offered the opportunity through the aforesaid domain to open a trading account where they can place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned transactions, carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com and https://cointrade.cc are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors since the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com domain, which routes users to the separate https://cointrade.cc website, is available in Italian.

WHEREAS both domains cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence in order to provide investment services, as per article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which "The professional provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Italian Investment firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of article 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) 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 pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that the infringement cease";

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary, in the light of the foregoing, to adopt this Resolution immediately for reasons of urgency;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree 58/1998 carried out through the www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com and https://cointrade.cc domains, consisting in the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties and published in the Consob Bulletin.

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

16 December 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona