The National Securities Market Commission has not yet called for a ban on the 12 companies listed in the alert.
Spain’s national securities regulator has put nearly a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges and financial service providers on notice that they are not permitted to do business in the country.
The National Securities Market Commission’s Aug. 16 notice warns that exchanges including Huobi and Bybit are not registered with the commission and are therefore “not authorised to provide investment services or other activities subject to the CNMV’s supervision.”
To a certain extent, the CNMV is the Spanish equivalent of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. But it has fewer teeth, as its powers are administrative, meaning complaints about criminal activity or demands for financial compensation must be handled through the courts.
Huobi is a leading exchange, ranked No. 3 in CoinMarketCap’s exchange ratings score.
The firms affected are:
- Bybit
- DSDAQ Market
- Expertise Trader
- Financial Resident
- Huobi
- Liberty Sky
- The Market Limited
- Markets Cube
- Markets EU
- N2 Group
- Profit Assist
A non-crypto company, SkyWay, was also mentioned in the release.
Crypto Crackdown Continues
The CNMV’s move is only the latest in a series of regulatory crackdowns across Asia and Europe in recent months. Shortly after the new year, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority banned cryptocurrency exchanges from offering derivatives such as options and futures to retail clients in the country.
In March, the FIA, a futures industry association, warned of a growing regulatory crackdown across the U.S., EU, U.K., China, and several other major Asian regulators such as South Korea's Financial Services Commission and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
The world’s largest exchange, Binance, has been a particular target of regulators’ attention in recent months. On August 6, Binance CEO Changepeng “CZ” Zhao announced that the firm regulatory compliance stance was “pivoting from reactive compliance to proactive compliance.”
That came after regulators in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and the U.K. specifically targeted the company. It also cut business lines in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the European Economic Community.
