Resolution no. 22472

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 website www.bithebank.com and the relevant pages https://webtrader.bithebank.com and https://mobtrader.bithebank.com

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 audits conducted on the website www.bithebank.com ascertained that:

i. the website www.bithebank.com is active, also available in Italian and offers the possibility to trade on the forex market and to trade CFDs, commodities, indices and shares;

ii. the homepage contains two hyperlinks; one redirects the user to the trading platform accessible at the address https://webtrader.bithebank.com, the other redirects to the web page https://mobtrader.bithebank.com which contains a registration form;

iii. in order to be able to trade via the website www.bithebank.com, users must register and open an account and deposit the necessary funds;

iv. in particular, the site www.bithebank.com mentions four types of account named "Argento" "Oro", "Platinum" and "Club Vip" ["Silver" "Gold", "Platinum" and "VIP Club"], which vary according to the type of service offered;

v. as regards the traceability of the website www.bithebank.com, reference is made to the company Bithebank, with reported registered office in New York;

WHEREAS activity carried out through the website www.bithebank.com and the respective pages https://webtrader.bithebank.com and https://mobtrader.bithebank.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services as per article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account on which they can place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out by Bithebank through the website www.bithebank.com and the respective pages https://webtrader.bithebank.com and https://mobtrader.bithebank.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian and, moreover, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses. Furthermore, it was ascertained that contact activity has been made with Italian investors;

WHEREAS Bithebank, with alleged registered office in New York, as mentioned on the website www.bithebank.com, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

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 no. 58/1998 carried out through the websitewww.bithebank.com and the relevant pages https://webtrader.bithebank.com and https://mobtrader.bithebank.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the 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.

5 October 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona