France Weighs in on Crypto Regulation With Tough Stance Towards ICOs and Derivatives

In two statements issued by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the independent regulatory body governing France’s stock market, France is starting to show its position on regulation for different facets of the cryptocurrency market.

The AMF has had a look at both ICOs and Bitcoin derivatives with the stance being taken a rather harsh one. The statements also give insight into the general oversight and plan that the country is formulating, including hinting at formal authorizations and a ban on advertising.

European Union’s MiFID II regulations

The AMF’s statement dealt with online trading platforms for cryptocurrencies and the derivatives and stated that they should be falling under the European Union’s MiFID II regulations.

This would lead to tougher reporting and stringent business conduct standards. Additionally, the issue of online advertising of these platforms, which is commonplace, was also addressed with a ban being suggested.

“The AMF considers that the offer of cryptocurrency derivatives requires authorization and that it is prohibited to advertise such offer via electronic means,” the agency puts forward. “The AMF has reached the conclusion that platforms which offer these products must abide by the authorization and business conduct rules, and that these products must not be advertised via electronic means.”

ICOs take another hit

ICOs, so often heavily scrutinized and regulated by different countries because of the risks associated with them, also fell under the agencies hammer. Taking in comments from 82 sources in the French Public concerning ICO regulations, the AMF responded.

“A large majority of respondents expressed support for setting up an appropriate legal framework for this new type of fundraising.”

In order to give a path forward for those requesting it, the AMF gave three options:

“Promote a best practice guide without changing existing legislation (option one); Extend the scope of existing texts to treat ICOs as public offerings of securities (option two); Propose new legislation adapted to ICOs (option three).” Of those, option three received 66 percent approval.