Resolution no. 22846

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 via the website www.alphascrypto.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, 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:

1. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the www.alphascrypto.com website – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade on shares, indices, currency contracts and cryptocurrencies;
2. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the www.alphascrypto.com website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account on which to deposit funds; specifically, four different types of accounts are advertised on the website ("Argento" (Silver), "Oro" (Gold) and "Platino" (Platinum) and "VIP") which differ, moreover, according to the required minimum deposit; After registering, users can access the reserved area where they can, among other things, deposit cash on the trading account and access the trading platform;
3. as to the traceability of the operations carried out on the www.alphascrypto.com website, there are numerous references on the website to "Alphascrypto";

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.alphascrypto.com constitutes the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.alphascrypto.com website is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domain is available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses. Moreover, regarding the www.alphascrypto.com website, reports have been received of investment solicitation by cold calling to retail investors in Italy, and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors, who reported that they were unable to recover the sums paid for trading activities;

WHEREAS the above www.alphascrypto.com website cannot be attributed to an entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as the company "Alphascrypto", as mentioned on the above website, 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 to provide investment services and activities 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 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 infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the www.alphascrypto.com website, 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 of the date of service.

9 October 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona