The regulator of Luxembourg’s financial markets, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), today sounded an alarm a fraudulent clone website that was impersonating crypto Payments provider BitPay.
BitPay is a payment processor for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and, most recently, Ethereum (ETH). The company specializes in setting up merchant accounts to accept cryptocurrency payments.
The commission red-flagged the activities of an entity named bitbay EUROPE S.A. (website: www.bit-bay.org) which claims to be a payment institution authorized in Luxembourg and supervised by the CSSF.
“The CSSF informs the public that an entity named bit-bay EUROPE S.A. is unknown to it and that it has not been granted any authorisation to provide payment services in or from Luxembourg," the regulator said.
BitPay suspended operations in Germany
BitPay, which was founded in 2011, already holds a so-called Virtual Currency License from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). This coveted license allows the company to offer clearing and settlement services to merchants willing to accept or issue payment in cryptos.
Last month, however, BitPay suspended its operations in Germany as new regulations in the country set to take effect next year and will require crypto businesses to obtain a license that's issued by the German regulators.
In addition, the well-known crypto payment processor doesn’t offer its services in the following countries: Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nepal, and Vietnam.
The regulator of Luxembourg’s financial markets adopts European restrictions around retail trading products, including cryptocurrency derivatives. Specifically, the CSSF introduces tiered leverage for retail clients, dropping CFDs on major pairs to 30: 1 while other CFDs shrink to 20: 1. Commodities and non-major indices trade with 10: 1 or lower leverage while Cryptocurrencies take the biggest hit, dropping to 2: 1.
