The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), France’s financial market regulator, issued a warning on Thursday, advising investors to avoid using the crypto platform ByBit. Despite its rapid growth and achieving 20 million registered users within five years, ByBit has come under scrutiny in France for non-compliance with current regulations. Consequently, the AMF blacklisted ByBit on May 20, 2022.
“ByBit is not authorized to provide its digital asset services in France,” the AMF stated. The regulator urged French retail investors who have used the platform to take necessary measures to safeguard their assets. The AMF emphasized that ByBit has not received a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license in France and warned that it could take legal action to block the platform’s website. “Unregistered platforms providing these services in France are illegal under French law,” the notice reiterated.
Similarly, last month, the AMF cautioned investors about using the Bitget crypto exchange, which was blacklisted in November 2023.
In addition to France, Hong Kong’s markets regulator added ByBit to its list of suspicious cryptocurrency exchanges in March. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) included several ByBit products on its suspicious investment products list, warning investors of the risk of losing their entire investment and indicating potential enforcement actions.
A ByBit spokesperson noted that the exchange is in ongoing discussions with global regulators, including those in Hong Kong, to ensure compliance with all necessary regulations. They assured that specific products listed for different regions to meet local compliance requirements are not available in the Hong Kong market.