FILE PHOTO: The logo of Binance is seen on their exhibition stand at the Delta Summit, Malta’s official Blockchain and Digital Innovation event promoting cryptocurrency, in St Julian’s, Malta October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo
July 15, 2021
By Tom Wilson
LONDON (Reuters) -Binance is not authorised to carry out activities in Italy, the country’s market watchdog said on Thursday, joining a string of global regulatory moves against the cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance Group companies are not authorised to provide investment services and activities in Italy, despite sections of its website offering information in Italian, Consob said https://www.consob.it/documents/46180/46181/pr_20210715.pdf/7f78ad2d-a146-4b17-abe8-92efac07f49e in a statement.
“Savers are invited to make use of their utmost diligence in order to make their investment choices in full awareness, verifying in advance that the websites through which they make the investment can be attributed to authorised subjects,” it said.
A spokesperson for Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said it took a collaborative approach to working with regulators and takes its compliance obligations seriously.
Britain’s financial watchdog last month barred Binance – one of the world’s biggest exchanges – from carrying out regulated activities in the UK.
Regulators in Thailand, Japan, Germany and the United States have also targeted the platform recently.
Binance offers a wide range of services to users across the globe, from crypto spot and derivatives trading to tokenised versions of stocks. Its Italian-language channel on the Telegram messaging site has over 25,500 members.
Trading volumes in June were $668 billion, up almost ten-fold from July 2020, data from CryptoCompare showed.
(Reporting by Tom Wilson; editing by Jason NeelyEditing by Rachel Armstrong)
