French Watchdog Warns Against Unauthorized Crypto Platforms

French stock market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), continues monitoring the cryptocurrency market to warn investors about unauthorized crypto services.

On Friday, October 1, AMF updated its web portals, identifying those that offer crypto and foreign exchange (forex) investments through unauthorized entities. The list included four websites related to cryptocurrency derivatives investments alongside 12 forex-related sites.

According to the regulator, the listed entities have been offering investment products without being authorized to provide such services. To protect investors from potentially fraudulent investments, AMF and French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) regularly update the blacklist of unauthorized investment providers. Still, those lists are “not intended to be complete” as “new unauthorized entities appear regularly.”

The authority strongly recommended that investors follow the list of authorized investment providers using the online register of financial service providers as well as the list of authorized providers in the financial investment advisor or crowdfunding categories.

The AMF’s latest warning comes shortly after Paris-based derivatives fund manager Melanion Capital launched a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in August. Melanion CEO Jad Comair reportedly said that getting the fund approved by AMF was “a real challenge because of the sensibilities and politics currently surrounding Bitcoin and Bitcoin investing.”

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