Belgium’s regulator warns of Coinclick, GLE Markets

abdelaziz Fathi

Belgium’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services and Markets Authority ‎‎(FSMA), has issued a warning against the unauthorized activities of multiple ‎ platforms that are offering investments in the country without ‎complying with Belgian financial legislation.‎

The FSMA notes that several fraudulent trading platforms offer to their customers affiliate programs that exhibit signs of a pyramid scheme.

FSMA operates as a watchdog for financial trading, securities and markets in Belgium, overseeing a variety of assets and compliance issues for traders and consumers. Today’s warning is the latest initiative in its efforts to clamp down on companies engaging in fraudulent activities.

“These trading platforms try to arouse consumers’ curiosity by placing scam ads on social media or online video platforms. In these fake ads, a (well-known) person often explains how to get rich quick. Trading platforms also sometimes use mobile applications to lure victims,” it said.

The agency also managed to catch up in the last few months, bringing standalone actions against cryptocurrency operators. This represents the FSMA‎’s latest effort to police the rampant internet-based ‎cryptocurrency schemes, which operate into a zone that the ‎watchdog regulates.

The latest additions include:

  • Asia Coinin (www.asia-coinin.com)
  • Binotrader (binotrader.com)
  • Buxberg (buxberg.com)
  • Cedar Financial (cedarfinancial.ltd)
  • Central Margins (centralmargins.com)
  • Coinclick (coinclickex.com)
  • Coins Crossing (coinciros.com)
  • Coins Trades (coinstrades.com)
  • GLE Markets (glemarkets.com)
  • Globale-Invest (www.globale-invest.com)
  • Grow Deposits (trade.growdeposits.net)
  • Itoro-Capital / ItoroStocks (itoro-capital.com; itoro-capital.co; itoro-capital.net)
  • Mega Markets (megamarkets.com)
  • RXK Capital (rxkcapital.com; www.rxkcapital.org)
  • STB Markets (stbmarkets.com)
  • Stocks Views (stocks-views.com)
  • Thinvest (thinvest.com)
  • Ulian Pro (ulianpro.site)
  • Webull Investing (webullinvesting.com)
  • Wilton Option (wiltonoption.com)
  • Xpoken (xpoken.com)

The aforementioned companies are not authorized investment firms in Belgium. They are therefore not allowed to provide investment services in or from within the country.

Based on this, the FSMA strongly advises against responding to any offers of financial or recovery services made by the companies listed above and against transferring money to any account number they might mention.

To get the protections offered by securities laws when trading digital assets, investors should ‎use a platform or entity registered with the FSMA, the regulator said.

Cryptocurrency companies operating in Belgium have to apply for a license to the nation’s financial watchdog as the new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations come into effect.

License applicants must show to Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) that they possess sufficient capability, coherence, and solvency to run the business.

As part of their plans, the FSMA imposes a minimum capital of €50,000 ($53,000) and mandate a corporate structure on cryptoasset-related businesses to register with the country’s regulator.

Once the new regulation takes effect, that would force crypto exchanges, wallet providers and crypto custodial service providers operating in Belgium to register with a financial regulator and prove that they are meeting AML requirements if they want to continue their operations.

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