Resolution n. 23084

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 https://cryptotradeclub.ltd website and the page https://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd

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 the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. through the active website https://cryptotradeclub.ltd, also available in Italian, a "cutting-edge platform equipped with artificial intelligence" is proposed, which would allow, subject to the opening of an account, trading on CFDs having currencies, cryptocurrencies, indices and shares as underlying assets,

ii. to carry out such trades, users must register and open a trading account; after registration, it is possible to view a dashboard, located at the addresshttps://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd, available in Italian, through which it is possible, also for Italian users, to send documentation functional to verify the user's identity, make a deposit through various payment systems and access a web-trading platform;

iii. with regard to the legal entity to which the website refers, it should be noted that in the "About Us" section reference is made to "Crypto Trade Club Ltd’ with its alleged registered office in the United Kingdom and there is a contact email address support@ooficial.cryptotradeclub.limited.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://cryptotradeclub.ltd and the webpage https://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services, within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, inasmuch as said domain and the relevant page offer the possibility of opening a trading account and placing buy and/or sales orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the website https://cryptotradeclub.ltd and the page https://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that said domains are active and available also in Italian, and that cold calling of Italian consumers has been reported, complaints have been received from Italian individuals who have complained, among other things, that they were unable to get their money back and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the mentioned website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS such activity carried out through the website https://cryptotradeclub.ltd and the page https://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd cannot be attributed to any entity that is 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 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that such 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. 58/98 carried out through the website https://cryptotradeclub.ltd and the page https://cfd.cryptotradeclub.ltd, which constitutes the offer 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.

24 April 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona