Belgium’s watchdog warns of Capitals Trade Fx, FX EliteTrader and UXTrades

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.‎

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.

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:

  • BiTraderPro (bitraderpro.com
  • Bitalpha AI (bitalpha-ai.io, bitalpha-ai.nl and bitalpha-ai.org)
  • Bitopps (www.bitopps.com)
  • Bullden (bullden.io)
  • Capital Forex Live Limited (capitalforex.live)
  • Capital One Markets (capitalonemarkets.com)
  • Capitals Trade Fx (capitalstradefx.com)
  • Cedar Signals (cedarsignals.live)
  • Crypto1Capital (platform.crypto1capital-trade.com and crypto1capital.com)
  • Cryptoneyx (www.cryptoneyx.com and www.cryptoneyx.io)
  • Definite Area (definitearea.com)
  • DGTL-Trade (dgtl-trade.com)
  • Ejinvesting (ejinvesting.com)
  • Finutrade (finutrade.com)
  • FX EliteTrader (fx-elitetrader.io)
  • GFE Markets (gfemarkets.com)
  • Gigachains (www.gigachains.com)
  • Green Capitalz (greencapitalz.com)
  • Greenlinepro (greenlinepro.com)
  • Gstock (gstocklegal.com)
  • Hubblebit (hubblebit.com and hubblebit.vip)
  • Icorp Securities (icorpsecurities.com)
  • Inetmarkets (inetmarkets.com)
  • JH Group (hk-atf.com)
  • Marketsbank (marketsbank.com)
  • MiningFXbitcoin (miningfxbitcoin.com)
  • NABCrypto.io (nabcrypto.io)
  • Onotex (onotextrade.com)
  • Plus12 (plus12.io)
  • Priority Markets (priority-markets.com)
  • Profi Trade 24/7 (profitrade247.com)
  • Quantrix-Capital (www.quantrixcapital.net and www.quantrix-capital.com)
  • Quantum AI (quantum-ai-trading.com)
  • Skynettrades (skynettrades.com)
  • Smart Trade Group (smart-trade-group.com and smart-trade-group.net)
  • Swisschains (www.swisschains.com)
  • Tandem Markets (www.tandemmarkets.com)
  • TradeBaionics (www.tradebaionics.com and www.tradebaionics.net)
  • Trade-Coin (trade-coin.com)
  • Uniglobal Invest (uniglobal-invest.com)
  • UXTrades (uxtrades.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.

Read this next

Technology

SteelEye tries ChatGPT for market surveillance

This capability can be used as a starting point for initiating a surveillance investigation and to standardize workflow processes to boost the throughput and consistency of cases. It is also useful when analyzing communications in foreign languages, as the system returns the above insights in English regardless of the languages being used.

Industry News

SEC charges ex-Morgan Stanley advisor of NBA players after $13m fraud

Darryl Matthew Cohen was arrested this week and is facing three different federal counts of fraud, which could amount to 20 years in prison if convicted, besides the SEC complaint. 

Industry News

AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator launched, applications until April 27, 2023

Founders will be offered tech resources, expert guidance, and a global network of industry leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, associations, and partners, in order to build their fintech products. 

Industry News

Interactive Brokers pays unmatched interest up to USD 4.33% on cash balances over $10,000

For clients of Interactive Brokers, interest accrues daily, and payments are posted on a monthly basis. Interactive Brokers’ cash management is integrated into client broker accounts, making it simple to earn interest and borrow at the lowest rates without transferring cash.

Retail FX

FP Markets adds cTrader to roster of trading platforms that include MT4, MT5, Iress

“Our market share swings towards the more sophisticated segment of traders and we have been inundated with requests for an additional platform with more institutional-style characteristics. The addition of the cTrader trading platform offering allows our clients the choice to further shape their trading experience with us.”

Digital Assets

SEC mulls lawsuit against Coinbase’s staking and spot trading

Shares in Coinbase fell 15 percent after the US Securities and Exchange Commission threatened a potential enforcement action against the crypto exchange over certain products.

Digital Assets

Kraken halts ACH transactions amid banking crisis

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken says it will no longer process Automated Clearing House (ACH) following the failure of its payments partner, Silvergate Bank.

Digital Assets

French influencers face two years in jail for promoting crypto products

France’s National Assembly’s Economics Committee voted in favor of a law that bans social media influencers from touting risky financial services, including cryptocurrencies.

Interviews

Exberry’s Guy Melamed on paradigm shift with cloud-native exchanges at FIA Boca 2023

FinanceFeeds Editor-in-Chief Nikolai Isayev spoke with Guy Melamed about Exberry’s cloud-native exchange SaaS platform certified by AWS to bring about a paradigm shift in the industry at a time of cybersecurity concerns.

<