Resolution no. 22955

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 committed via the www.bitblanco.co website and its page https://webtrader.bitblanco.co

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA

HAVING REGARD to Law no. 216 of 7 June 1974, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

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

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

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the www.bitblanco.co website – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade in derivatives such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on assets such as currencies and cryptocurrencies through a trading platform;

ii. in order to place trades, users must register with the www.bitblanco.co website through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy and open a trading account: in this regard, the website lists 8 types of account ("Bronze", "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum", "Diamond", "Prize", "VIP" and "Islamic") that differ, among other things, according to the required minimum deposit; the reserved area of the website is accessible using the login form available at the URL https://webtrader.bitblanco.co;

iii. as to traceability, there are references on the website to "Bitblanco", with its alleged registered office in the United Kingdom;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22891 of 15 November 2023, whereby ''Bitblanco'' was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.bitblanco.com website and https://webtrader.bitblanco.com webpage;

WHEREAS, in addition to using domains that are partially superimposable on those of the aforementioned www.bitblanco.com website and its https://webtrader.bitblanco.com web page, the www.bitblanco.co website and its https://webtrader.bitblanco.co web page replicate the content and graphic format thereof;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.bitblanco.co website and the page https://webtrader.bitblanco.co is to be considered as provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, as users are offered the opportunity, through the aforementioned domains, to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out via the www.bitblanco.co website and its https://webtrader.bitblanco.co page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that said website is available in Italian, the absence of a mechanism to block registration by users attempting to register with the said website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses has been noted, attempts to contact Italian investors have been reported and complaints have also been received from Italian investors who have reported that they were unable to get back the sums deposited for trading transactions;

WHEREAS the www.bitblanco.co website and its page https://webtrader.bitblanco.co may not be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 commercial 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 activities 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 provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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 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 breach of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted via the website www.bitblanco.co and the page https://webtrader.bitblanco.co, consisting in offering and providing 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 of the date of service.

20 December 2023

p. THE CHAIRMAN
Maria Chiara Mosca