15 Cryptocurrency & Crypto-Asset Websites Blacklisted By French Regulatory Agency

In a press release the French stock market regulator announced that they have added 15 cryptocurrency and crypto-asset investment websites to a blacklist on March 15.

In a press release there was a statement:

“The investment proposals highlighting the possibility of financial returns or similar economic effects involve intermediation in miscellaneous assets and are now subject to ex ante control by the AMF. Consequently, no offer can be directly marketed in France without prior allocation by the AMF of a registration number.”

Despite there are new regulations, the press release lists 15 companies, who continued to advertise and market their services as investment opportunities to the French public. The blacklist also includes businesses that offered investments in commodities like rare earth metals, wine, and diamonds with law-passing.

Consumers are also reminded that high returns always involve high risk. It further advises them to by duly diligent before making an investment, to learn as much as one can about the company or intermediary, and to only invest in a product one understands.

This move by French regulators follows a pattern of suspicious attitudes toward cryptocurrencies from the French government. Last year, the governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau represented the high risks of investing in Bitcoin. He said Bitcoin is a speculative asset, and neither a currency or a digital currency.

France’s Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire appointed to an open Bitcoin critic Jean-Pierre Landau to head a task force to examine cryptocurrency regulation. Landau has called Bitcoin the “tulips of modern times” in reference to Tulip Mania, which swept Europe in the early 17th century.