The Financial Services and
Markets Authority (FSMA), Belgium’s financial markets watchdog, starting May 17,
2023, will start enforcing a new regulation aimed at monitoring advertisements (ads) targeted at consumers in Belgium. This comes after the regulation was approved
by a Royal Decree on February 8, 2023.
In a webinar held on Wednesday,
the regulation shared some details on the regulation, noting that the new rules relate to adverts
intended to attract crypto investments and released either “as a regular
professional activity or an occasional basis for compensation.”
According to ESMA, while the new
regulation covers virtual assets that function as a means of exchange or
payment such as Bitcoin or Ether, assets with only a utility function or serve
as securities are exempted.
The regulatory agency said it
created the regulation because cryptocurrencies are “a particularly risky investment
asset” popular among Belgians who are mostly younger
investors. The regulator added that last
year’s crypto winter and FTX bankruptcy “have hardly undermined faith in
virtual currencies.”
According to the details shared in a presentation at the webinar, FMSA must be notified 10 days
before a crypto ad that is to be published by a trading platform
