Cryptocurrency-related scam enquiries jump 14000% since 2016, says French regulator AMF

The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French stock markets regulator, has seen more than 14,000% spike in enquiries related to cryptocurrency scams in 2018 as compared to 2016, Cointelegraph reported.

The regulator published the details in its annual report released on Tuesday, May 07. According to the report, the number of enquiries related to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes skyrocketed from 18 in 2016 to over 2,600 last year.

Since March 2018, the AMF said, it created a blacklist of unauthorized sites that offer investments in cryptocurrency derivatives. In total, it has warned the public against 154 actors or websites, of which 118 are associated with cryptocurrencies.

The AMF said that it has significantly contributed to the development of the legal framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and digital assets services providers (DASP), proposed in the PACTE Bill (Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation).

The framework offers “optional licensing of trading platforms and other services providers of digital asset services, as well as that the authorization of specialized professional funds (FPS) to invest in crypto-assets,” it said (via online translation).

The PACTE draft Bill was adopted at its final reading in the French National Assembly on 11 April 2019. In a press release dated April 15, the AMF said:

“The PACTE draft Bill as definitively adopted by the French Parliament reinforces the AMF’s powers to provide better protection to investors.

“The AMF will have the powers to oversee the ICOs that have received its visa and to supervise licensed service providers. In the event of non-compliance with the rules, the AMF may hand down sanctions against ICO issuers and licensed service providers.”

The agency can also publish a blacklist of ICOs and DASPs who do not comply with the regulations, and can block access to fraudulent websites offering services in digital assets.