The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) have added a further 14 sites to its ever-growing blacklist this week, bringing the total to over 100. The full list, which the authority actually publishes online, includes various different types of fraud that the FSMA allege these sites have committed. It also includes, according to the site:

“Companies that offer, in or from Belgium, financial services and products without complying with Belgian financial legislation (no authorization / failure to publish a prospectus / etc.);

Companies about which, in addition to any infringements of the financial legislation and regulations the FSMA supervises, the latter has identified serious evidence of investment fraud;

Companies behind recovery room fraud.”

The addition of crypto sites to this list has been an ongoing project from the FSMA since 2016. Since then, the organization has proactively contacted investors, warning them of the dangers of crypto investment. On this occasion, the latest statement that announced the thirteen, read:



“The principle remains the same: they offer you an investment they claim is secure, easy and very lucrative. They try to inspire confidence by assuring you that you don’t need to be an expert in cryptocurrencies in order to invest in them. They claim to have specialists who will manage your investments for you. You are told that your funds can be withdrawn at any time or that they are guaranteed. In the end, the result is always the same: the victims find themselves unable to recover their money!”

The FSMA also acknowledge that the list is only based on independent research, and also relies on consumer reports. Despite this though, this is the fifth crypto-related update to the list that has taken place this year, as well as the third investor warning.

However, the Belgian stance does not mean that the European Union view will be the same. Indeed, back in September, CCN reported that comments from the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Vienna were accepting, rather than wholly negative. The European Commission Vice-President Vladis Dombrovskis acknowledged that “crypto-assets are here to stay,” but has regularly voiced his opinion that there should be a European regulatory framework in place to provide more stability and transparent governance to the crypto world.

The concern within the crypto community will be, of course, an end to anonymity and a gradual move towards centralization that could be seen as a benefit to established major organizations. However, 2018 has shown without doubt that in terms of technology, at government level the interest is more in the underlying technology, blockchain, than in cryptocurrency itself. That said, it is difficult to imagine what a world with clear, unified regulations for crypto use and investment would look like.

However, on a lower level, lists like the one from the FSMA are not a direct threat to the sanctity of crypto.