Resolution no. 23100

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 committed via the www.highbtcstock.com 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. the www.highbtcstock.com website - which is active, also available in Italian and registered anonymously - offers potential investors the possibility to perform trading on CFDs relating to shares, cryptocurrencies and commodities;

ii. on the www.highbtcstock.com website, users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account among the five mentioned and named, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered, "Bronze", "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" and "Islamic";

iii. as regards traceability, the "Terms and Conditions" of the www.highbtcstock.com website indicate that the contractual counterparty of the user operating through the aforementioned platform is "High BTC Stock";

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.highbtcstock.com website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out via the www.highbtcstock.com website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the www.highbtcstock.com website is also available in Italian and in relation to the same website www.highbtcstock.com, reports have also been received of investment solicitation by cold calling retail investors in Italy. In addition, complaints were received from Italian retail investors who claimed that they were unable to get their money back to trade on the website www.highbtcstock.com;

WHEREAS the website www.highbtcstock.com may not be attributed to any entity 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 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 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out via the www.highbtcstock.com website, constituted by 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.

2 May 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona