Spain's financial regulator, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), has published a list of 18 companies offering services in the country without being licensed to do so.
The list of unlicensed companies, published on the CNMV's website on February 26, includes several cryptocurrency companies. Bitbinx, Crytomerge, and CryptoMaxiTrade were blacklisted.
The regulator commented, "These companies are not registered in the relevant register of the Commission, so they are not authorized to provide investment services or other activities subject to CNMV supervision."
The CNMV noted its limited powers but advised investors affected by illegal activities to take legal action, according to Cointelegraph.
Crypto investing has become increasingly popular in Spain over the past year, with the number of regulated cryptocurrency exchanges authorized to offer services in the country increasing by 56% in 2023.
The CNMV and Spanish regulators have joined forces in 2023 to coordinate their policies to regulate the crypto sector. Spain's Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation announced in October the need to accelerate the integration of the European Union's first comprehensive crypto regime, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.
The Bank of Spain published an official registry, according to which 30 companies will be licensed as virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) for cryptocurrency activities in 2023. This registry already includes 83 companies, such as Binance, Crypto.com, Bitpanda, and Revolut.
Meanwhile, the country's central bank is actively considering the introduction of digital currencies. In January 2024, a special committee was appointed to actively test the central bank's wholesale CBDC. Spain's CBDC program is unique in that it will be completely independent of the digital euro project and, if successful, will be able to cover all eurozone economies.
Spain has excellent prospects for expanding the use of cryptocurrencies. It is one of the leading countries in the European Union in terms of the number of cryptocurrency ATMs (310). At the same time, there are 178 ATMs in Germany and only 16 in France.
Also, the country is trying to control cryptocurrency activity and prosecute companies that do not have regulatory licenses. For example, in November 2023, the CNMV filed its first case against technology provider Miolos for violating the country's crypto services regulations.
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