News Nuggets | 17 May: Belgium's Crypto Ads Rules Kick In; FINMA's Action

Belgium's New Crypto Ads Rules

The new cryptocurrency advertisement rules in Belgium, which the Financial Services and Markets Authority drafted (FSMA), came into effect on Wednesday.

The rules will ensure that the contents of the advertisement are not inaccurate or misleading, the insertion of mandatory risk statements, and the obligation to notify the FSMA of all advertisements to be used in a mass media campaign.

"From 17 May onwards, every new advertisement that is disseminated in connection with a distribution of virtual currencies to consumers has to comply with these rules, regardless of the channel used for the dissemination (social media, internet sites, physical medium)," the regulatory announcement stated.

Zondacrypto Secures Slovakia License

Estonia-based Zondacrypto (previously Zonda) announced that it had secured a digital asset services license in Slovakia, which will allow the company to offer crypto services.

"This expansion aligns perfectly with our vision of becoming a global leader in the EU crypto market. We're confident that entering this new market will not only present us with exciting business opportunities, but also allow us to bring our unique products and services to a more diverse range of customers," the company wrote in a Linkedin post.

In addition, Zondacrypto highlighted that while the Slovakian government doesn’t require crypto asset providers to operate with an official license, it will ensure that the company is compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules.

FINMA Takes Actions against Crypto Platform

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) concluded its enforcement action against the Dohrnii Foundation and its Founder and former Managing Director, who ran crypto businesses without a license.

The Dohrnii Foundation and its Founder launched an initial coin offering (ICO) with promises of providing access to a learning platform and a marketplace where users can trade crypto services and products. The ICO received around 3 million euros from around 500 private individuals.

However, FINMA found that Dohrnii's platform was never operational, and the DHN tokens could never be used.

"The single judge sitting at the Cantonal Court of Zug opened bankruptcy proceedings against the Dohrnii Foundation as early as mid-March 2023 due to overindebtedness. The foundation is in the process of being dissolved," the regulator stated. "As a result, FINMA no longer needs to take any measures."

Libertex Expands Crypto CFDs Offering

Libertex, a retail brokerage, has added Arbitrum CFDs to enhance its offerings with cryptocurrency instruments. The broker offers more than 90 cryptocurrency trading instruments.

The addition of Arbitrum came when demand for the token is growing. It is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that runs its own blockchain, which offers faster transactions, lower fees, governance functionality, and other features.

"Arbitrum continues to add new features that make it an even bigger player in the crypto world. Traders now have a chance to join this project's exciting journey by trading Arbitrum CFDs with Libertex without needing to buy or hold the ARB token itself," the official announcement of Libertex added.

CLSA Premium Seeks to Resume Share Trading

Hong Kong-based CLSA Premium, which recently exited margin dealing, announced that it is taking necessary steps to resume the trading of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as soon as possible.

The announcement came as the company received a letter from the stock exchange on 12 May, asking to meet two guidelines for resumption of trading.

"The Stock Exchange required the Company to meet all Resumption Guidance, remedy the substantive issues causing its trading suspension, and fully comply with the Listing Rules to the Stock Exchange’s satisfaction before trading in its securities is allowed to resume," the company's announcement stated. "For this purpose, the Company has the primary responsibility to devise its action plan for resumption."

"The Company is taking appropriate steps to resolve the issues causing its trading suspension and will seek to resume trading of its shares as soon as possible."

Public.com Introduces AI Chatbot Alpha to Enhance Offering

Public.com, a trading platform provider eyeing European expansion, has introduced an artificial intelligence chatbot called Alpha, to enhance its clients’ trading experience. The chatbot is powered by GPT-4, a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI.

“With Alpha, you can save time researching and tracking stocks, ETFs, crypto, and alternative assets by receiving instant answers to your questions through a natural language interface,” Public.com said in a Medium post published on Wednesday.

The zero-commission platform further explained that the chatbot can help its clients with everyday investment-related activities, such as evaluating stock performance and outlook, monitoring real-time market activity and comparing top movers of the day. It can also retrieve important news articles and even summarize earning calls almost immediately after they are held.

FXOpen Adds HUF and CZK Currency Pairs to Meet Client Demand

FXOpen, a retail forex and CFDs broker, has added two new currency pairs to its asset pool. These are the Hungarian forint (HUF) and Czech Koruna (CZK), both of which are paired with the US dollar and euro.

The broker announced the addition on Wednesday, noting that it introduced the pairs to meet its clients’ increased demands for the new pairs. The pairs can be traded on MetaTrader 4 and 5 as well as TickTrader, the broker said.

Gary Thomson, FXOpen’s UK Chief Operating Officer, pointed out that: “the Hungarian forint has been increasing in value quite dramatically.”

“Since October last year, the forint has been appreciating against the euro. In October 2022, the forint was trading around 432 to the euro, whereas today it is trading at 372,” he further explained.

Euronext Reappoints Stéphane Boujnah as Chairman/CEO

Stéphane Boujnah has been reappointed as the Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, a pan-European stock exchange group, extending his tenure to 2027. Additionally, he was re-elected as the CEO during the group’s Annual General Meeting, winning 98.21% of the votes in his favour.

Boujnah first became the Chairman and CEO in 2015 and contributed significantly to increasing the stock exchange group’s operating performance and diversification.

“He has realized an ambitious expansion strategy to establish Euronext as Europe's leading market infrastructure,” Euronext said in a statement released on Wednesday. “As a result, Euronext now manages activities across the entire capital markets value chain, operating under a highly scalable and diversified model.”