Resolution no. 22691

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the www.btccapitalgroup.com 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 7 June 1974, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

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

1. potential investors are offered the opportunity via the btccapitalgroup.com website – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian – to trade CFDs on currencies;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the btccapitalgroup.com website through a process that is also available for Italian users, open an account and deposit relevant funds;
3. in particular, the btccapitalgroup.com website lists five types of account, referred to as "Esploratore", "Base", "Argento", "Oro", and "Platino" ["Explorer", "Basic", "Silver", "Gold", and "Platinum"], depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;
4. in terms of traceability, the btccapitalgroup.com website contains generic references to "BTC Capital Group", for which no information is provided as to its possible registered office; Furthermore, the "Contacts" section of the same website www.btccapitalgroup.com contains references to a contact e-mail address (support@btccapitalgroup.com) and a telephone number with an Italian country code (+39 0230329479) is available;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.btccapitalgroup.com website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a trading account and place orders on it to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out via the www.btccapitalgroup.com website, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, as the website www.btccapitalgroup.com is also available in Italian and the same website provides a telephone number with an Italian country code. Moreover, in the www.btccapitalgroup.com website no mechanism was found that aims to block registration by users attempting to register with the same domain from Italy/via Italian IP addresses. Complaints were also received from Italian savers in relation to the initiatives promoted via the www.btccapitalgroup.com website and evidence was acquired of conversations that took place, in Italian, in the context of instant messaging applications between Italian savers and operators of the site www.btccapitalgroup.com;

WHEREAS "BTC Capital Group", mentioned on the www.btccapitalgroup.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on the dedicated register held by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD to the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved to licensed parties as referred to under 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";

CONSIDERING therefore that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in breach 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 unauthorised provision of investment services" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the breach";

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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed via the www.btccapitalgroup.com website, consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

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

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

3 May 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona