Warning to the public regarding unlicensed VFA companies

Reference is made to the Transitory Period allowed in terms of Article 62 of the Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Act (‘The Act’), which came to an end on 31 October 2019, wherein entities were allowed to provide VFA services. Following the expiry of the transitory period, entities operating under the transitory provisions had the below options:

(i) If they wished to continue providing VFA services, they were required to submit to the Malta Financial Services Authority a Letter of Intent to initiate the application process for a VFA Services Licence; or

(ii) If they did not want to continue providing VFA services, they were required to submit a cessation of activities notification to the MFSA in terms of Section 3 of the Circular to Virtual Financial Asset Service Providers.

Following the expiry of the transitory period, the MFSA is aware of a number of entities which have availed themselves of the transitory provisions, thus were providing VFA services, but have failed to submit either the Letter of Intent to initiate the application process for a VFA Services Licence or a cessation of activities notification.

The Authority would like to inform the public in Malta and abroad, that the entities listed below are NOT licensed NOR authorised by the MFSA to provide any VFA services or or other financial services nor have they initiated the application process to obtain a VFA services licence:

A
A Bit More Limited

B
Babylon Services Limited
Basetrade Limited
Bayleaf Limited
Billions X Trading Limited
BitRoyal Limited
Bitstraq Exchange Limited
Botwallet Limited
BKX Exchange Limited
BKX Vault Limited
Blockchain Exchange Limited
BTSE Limited

C
Cbanx Limited
Chain Partners (Malta) Co. Ltd.
Coin Temple Trading Limited
Consensus Technology Malta Limited
Crypto2Finance Ltd

D
DAX Malta Ltd
DES CT Exchange Limited
Digital Terminal Limited
DQR-OTC Limited
DQR-X Limited

E
Etelaranta (Malta) Limited
Eunex M Ltd.
Exscudo OU

F
Foresight Technology Limited

G
GL4 Financial Technologies Limited
Globiance Exchange Limited
Graviex Limited
GSOC Limited

H
HPX Limited
Hybrid Trade Limited
Hyperwallet Limited

J
Jikji Capital Limited

K
Krypital Group (Malta) Limited
Kyon Limited

L
Laser Capital Limited

M
Mandala Exchange Limited
Manticore Ventures Limited
Muse Service Limited

O
Odin Capital Limited
OK.NET Limited
OneZero Binary Limited
OTC Desk Limited

P
Palladium Exchange

S
SP Outsourcing Sp. Z o. o.
S-Project
SRG Crypto Exchange Limited

T
Thex Trade Company Ltd
TimeX Limited
Trendntrade TNT Limited
Tsalgood Limited

V
VBX Limited
Venture Miles (Malta) Limited

W
WeX Blockchain Limited
Won Limited

Z
Zipmex Global Pte. Ltd.

The MFSA would like to remind consumers of financial services not to enter into any financial services transaction unless they have ascertained that the entity with whom the transaction is being made is authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or another reputable financial services regulator.

https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services-register/Financial regulations oblige licensed entities to comply with strict legal requirements in the interest of investors and the integrity of the market. The activities of unlicensed entities are unregulated, making transactions with such entities risky for investors.

A list of MFSA licensed entities is available and can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA at https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services-register/.