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French financial markets ombudsman reports jump in crypto-related mediations

June 15, 2023No Comments


Progress can have its drawbacks, as the French stock market regulator, the non-governmental Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), has warned. According to the AMF ombudsman, mediations related to digital assets increased significantly in 2022, as did the number of registered digital asset service providers (DASPs).

In his newly released 2022 annual report, the AMF Ombudsman including a section dedicated to digital assets for the first time. He noted that while the total number of cases received by the ombudsman decreased from 1,964 in 2021 to 1,900 in 2022, mediation requests related to digital assets increased from 44 to 54, and the number of admissible cases increased from six to 17. At the same time, the number of registered DASPs pink from 28 to 59

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The AMF Ombudsman can only mediate in cases where the DASP is registered with the AMF or the AMF has provided optional approval in cases such as initial coin offerings. AMF registration is required to provide custody to third parties, buy or sell legal tender digital assets, exchange digital assets for other digital assets, or operate a digital asset trading platform in France.

An AMF license is required to "provide one or more digital asset services in the ordinary course of business." There is currently no licensed DASP.

The Ombudsman's report indicated that the DASP registry the requirements will tighten in Julybefore being superseded by the European Union's Markets for Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation next year.

The AMF ombudsman was careful to point out that it does not engage in "scams", which may be governed by regulations that apply to crypto assets or, in the case of derivatives, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). . Misunderstandings of the terms of participation were a common problem handled by the ombudsman, he reported.

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