Resolution no. 22284

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://cryptoproexpert.com website and relevant https://my.cryptoproexpert.com web page

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 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

i. the https://cryptoproexpert.com website – which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian – offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, shares and commodities via a trading platform;

ii. in order to carry out the aforesaid transactions, users must register with the https://cryptoproexpert.com website – through a procedure that is also available for Italian users – and open one of the tradingaccounts ("Standard", "Professional", "Business" and "Business Plus") advertised on the site;

iii. after registration, customers may log into the reserved area of the website at https://my.cryptoproexpert.com, where, inter alia, it is possible to deposit funds on the chosen tradingaccount;

iv. as for traceability, at the bottom of the aforesaid website pages it states that "cryptoproexpert.com is operated [by] Criptopay Limited", for which no registered address or contact details are given. In the document called "Terms and conditions" available on the website there are also generic references to "Crypto Pro Expert Limited";

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22210 of 16 February 2022, whereby "Cryptopay Limited" was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://cryptopro-24.com website and the relevant https://client.cryptopro-24.com web page, which have similar content to the https://cryptoproexpert.com site;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://cryptoproexpert.com website and relevant https://my.cryptoproexpert.com web page constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and issue orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the https://cryptoproexpert.com website and relevant https://my.cryptoproexpert.com web page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the domains are also available in Italian;

WHEREAS the parties mentioned on the https://cryptoproexpert.com website are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as none of them are enrolled on the register kept 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 authorised 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";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of art. 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 abusive practices" - 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 infringement";

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 no. 58/98 carried out through the website https://cryptoproexpert.com and the relevant page https://my.cryptoproexpert.com, which constitutes the 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 of the date of service.

31 March 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona