The new Regulation, which was approved by Royal Decree of 8 February 2023 (Belgian Official Gazette of 17 March 2023), imposes obligations, including:

• rules regarding content, to ensure that advertisements are not inaccurate or misleading;
• the insertion of mandatory statements and, in particular, the brief warning 'Virtual currency, real risks. The only guarantee in crypto is risk.', as well as a longer warning summing up the main risks associated with an investment in virtual currencies;
• the obligation to notify to the FSMA all advertisements to be used in a mass media campaign at least 10 days before their dissemination, in the form in which they will be disseminated.

From 17 May, all new advertisements that are disseminated in connection with a distribution of virtual currencies to consumers must comply with these rules, regardless of the channel used for the dissemination. 

Thre is a transitional regime for advertisements that have already been disseminated before 17 May. These advertisements must comply with the Regulation by 17 June 2023.

The fraudulent online trading platforms offered trading in cryptocurrencies, binary options, CFDs and Forex products.

The FMSA said that 71.54% of the fraud reports it received in the first half of the year came from three main types of fraud.

The first concerned fraudulent online trading platforms (27.87%), which often involved fraudulent platforms offering investments in binary options, forex products, contracts for difference or cryptocurrencies. According to the regulator, victims are often lured through social media or via fake advertisements.

The second type was fake credit offers (17.29%) and the third was fraudulent offers of wealth management and alternative investments (26.38%).

The FMSA launched a campaign to raise awareness against investment fraud, which includes a new tool for the public to assess whether an investment offer is genuine or fraudulent.

In a statement, the FSMA said that, in recent months, it had observed a high number of cases of investment fraud that "takes the form of stealing the identity of authorised companies". 

Swindlers take on the identity of an authorised company to give consumers the impression they are authorised to offer services, when in fact these services are fraudulent. 

"In order to convince you to take them upon their offer of investments, the fraudsters lead you to believe that they are acting on behalf of firms that have the necessary authorisation to offer such services and that are registered with the FSMA or another authority," the regulator explained. 

However, the fraudsters usurp the names and other legal information of regulated providers and, for example, refer consumers to the FSMA website to try to convince them that they are authorised. 

"Consumers are thus deceived, thinking they are dealing with a regulated entity, whereas the latter’s identity has simply been stolen", the FSMA said. 

According to the regulator, consumers should be "particularly wary of fraud involving cryptocurrencies, where this practice seems extremely widespread".

The regulator repeated its warning against fraudsters who use cryptocurrency platforms to "swindle consumers". 

"Cryptocurrencies are the hype of the year. Fraudsters are well aware of that, and try to attract customers online through fake cryptocurrencies and huge profits. The only thing they actually do, however, is take the customers’ money and disappear. It is as simple as that." 

The FSMA has also updated its list of cryptocurrency trading platforms regarding which it has received questions/complaints from consumers and that have been identified as showing signs of fraud. 

The agency started keeping this list in February and the addition of the new 28 platforms has brought the total to 78. 

The regulator warned: 

"This list of cryptocurrency trading platforms is based solely on the findings of the FSMA, in particular as a result of consumers’ reports. As such, it does not include all the companies which might be operating unlawfully in Belgium in that sector."