Resolution no. 22972

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 websites www.alphascrypto.co.uk and www.alphascrypto.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 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

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

i. users trying to access the website www.alphascrypto.co.uk are redirected to the www.alphascrypto.website website, which is active, available in the Italian language and registered anonymously; potential investors are offered the opportunity through the www.alphascrypto.website website to trade on shares, indices, currency contracts and cryptocurrencies;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.alphascrypto.website website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account in which to deposit funds; specifically, four different types of accounts are advertised on the website ("Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" and "VIP") that differ, among other things, according to the required minimum deposit. After registering, users gain access to the reserved area where, among other things, they can access the trading platform;

iii. as to the traceability of trades placed via the www.alphascrypto.website website which users are being redirected to from the www.alphascrypto.co.uk website, the www.alphascrypto.website website contains numerous references to "Alphascrypto";

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22846 of 9 October 2023, whereby the aforementioned "Alphascrypto" was ordered to cease its breaching of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted via the separate www.alphascrypto.com website;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22890 of 15 November 2023, whereby the aforementioned "Alphascrypto" was ordered to cease its breaching of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted via the additiomal separate www.alphascrypto.uk website;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is similar to the domain of the aforementioned www.alphascrypto.com and www.alphascrypto.uk websites, the www.alphascrypto.website website - to which users are being redirected automatically from the www.alphascrypto.co.uk website - replicates the content and graphic format of the former ones;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.alphascrypto.website website, to which users are being redirected from the www.alphascrypto.co.uk website, 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 via the www.alphascrypto.co.uk and www.alphascrypto.website websites is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the www.alphascrypto.website website - to which users are automatically being redirected from the www.alphascrypto.co.uk website - is available in Italian and the absence of a mechanism to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses has been noted. In addition, attempts to contact Italian investors using remote communication techniques have been reported in relation to the www.alphascrypto.co.uk website;

WHEREAS the www.alphascrypto.co.uk and www.alphascrypto.website websites 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 www.alphascrypto.website website, is not listed in the register maintained 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 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 infringement of art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed through the websites www.alphascrypto.co.uk and www.alphascrypto.website, consisting of 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.

17 January 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona