AMF and ACPR Flag 93 Unauthorised Forex and Crypto Derivatives Sites in 2026
France's two most powerful financial regulators are warning the public that 93 websites have been added to the national blacklist this year for offering unauthorised Forex trading and crypto-asset derivatives to French residents. The joint announcement from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), published on 22 October 2026, makes clear that unlicensed activity in these categories is accelerating and that using such platforms carries serious financial and tax risks for individual investors. If you've traded on any site you can't verify as authorised, you need to act now, not when the tax bill arrives.
What the AMF and ACPR Actually Said
The two regulators publish and regularly update blacklists of websites that solicit French investors without holding the required authorisations. These lists cover two categories: retail Forex on the unregulated market, and derivatives whose underlying asset is a crypto-asset (think perpetual contracts, CFDs, and similar structured products tied to Bitcoin, Ether, or other tokens).
The Numbers for 2026
Since January 2026, the AMF and ACPR have added 57 sites in the Forex category and 36 sites in the crypto-asset derivatives category, bringing the combined total to 93 new blacklisted platforms in under ten months. Of those, 26 Forex sites and 10 crypto-derivatives sites were added in Q3 alone, the three-month window ending September 2026. That Q3 figure represents a meaningful concentration of enforcement activity in a single quarter.
The regulators are explicit that even these figures are not exhaustive. New unauthorised operators appear continuously, and the lists are updated on a rolling basis rather than waiting for a formal enforcement cycle. In other words, a platform's absence from today's blacklist does not confirm it is authorised.
Where to Check Authorisation Status
The AMF and ACPR direct investors to three verification tools, all free and publicly available:
- The ABEIS website (Assurance Banque Épargne Infoservice), under the "Prévention arnaques" section, which hosts the blacklists for both Forex and crypto-derivatives.
- The AMF's own investor protection pages, under "Espace épargnants > Protéger son épargne."
- The official registers of authorised investment service providers (PSI), authorised financial investment advisers (CIF), and authorised crowdfunding service providers (PSFP), each of which is searchable on the AMF and ACPR portals.
If a firm does not appear on any of those positive registers, the regulators' advice is unambiguous: do not engage with it. An unlisted intermediary may be violating applicable law and is unlikely to comply with basic investor-protection, disclosure, or complaints-handling obligations.
Why Crypto-Asset Derivatives Are in the Spotlight
Derivatives whose underlying is a crypto-asset occupy a distinctive regulatory space in France. Under the MiCA framework that has been progressively applying across the EU, straightforward buying and selling of crypto-assets falls under the crypto-asset service provider (CASP) regime. However, derivatives on crypto-assets, such as futures, options, and CFDs referencing Bitcoin or Ether, are treated as financial instruments under MiFID II rather than as crypto-assets proper. That means any firm offering them to French retail clients must hold a MiFID-compatible licence, specifically an investment services provider (PSI) authorisation from the ACPR or an equivalent passport from another EU member state.
Many of the 36 sites blacklisted in the crypto-derivatives category hold no such authorisation and are not registered under any EU crypto regime either. They operate in a regulatory vacuum from the perspective of French law, which is precisely why the AMF and ACPR flag them as high-risk. Investors who use these platforms have no recourse through the French financial ombudsman, no deposit protection, and no guarantee that the prices they see reflect real market conditions.
The Forex Connection
The 57 unauthorised Forex sites added this year target a related but distinct audience: retail traders attracted by leverage and currency-pair speculation. Retail Forex on the unregulated market has been a persistent enforcement headache for the AMF since long before crypto arrived on the scene. What has changed is that some operators now bundle unlicensed Forex with crypto-derivatives on the same platform, blurring the distinction for investors who may not realise they are trading two separately regulated product types at once.
The Tax Problem Nobody Talks About
Here is the part that catches people off guard. Using an unauthorised platform does not exempt you from French tax law. If you made gains trading on any of the 93 blacklisted sites, or on a site that may be blacklisted in the future, those gains are still taxable under French rules. The legal status of the platform is irrelevant to your personal tax position.
How French Law Treats Crypto Gains
For individual French residents, disposals of crypto-assets are generally subject to the flat tax (Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique, PFU) at a rate of 30%, covering both income tax and social contributions. Gains from derivatives may be treated differently depending on their characterisation, but the principle that realised gains must be declared holds in either case. There is no "fraud exception" that wipes out your tax liability just because the other party to your trade was operating without a licence.
This creates a practical problem for anyone who traded on an unlicensed platform: the platform almost certainly did not issue any compliant transaction history, cost-basis records, or tax reporting documents. That leaves you responsible for reconstructing your own trade history and calculating your gains independently. A reliable crypto tax calculator becomes essential in that scenario, not optional. You need to know what you actually owe before the French tax authority asks.
Reporting Obligations Still Apply
French residents are required to declare foreign crypto accounts on their annual tax return (Form 3916-bis), even where those accounts are held with unlicensed foreign operators. Failure to declare carries its own penalties, separate from any liability on the underlying gains. If the platform has since disappeared or refused to provide records, gathering your own transaction data from wallet explorers and exchange histories is the only path forward. Running those figures through a crypto tax report tool gives you a defensible calculation to present to the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) if questions arise.
For more context on France's evolving crypto tax landscape, including proposals around stablecoin taxation and self-custody wallet reporting requirements, see our piece on how France's stablecoin tax, exit tax, and self-custody wallet rules are changing.
What This Means for Individual Investors Right Now
The pace of new blacklist additions in 2026 suggests the AMF and ACPR are devoting significant supervisory resource to this area. It also reflects the volume of unlicensed operators still actively soliciting French residents. The risk is not hypothetical: investors who lose money on unauthorised platforms rarely recover it, because there is no compensation scheme and no regulatory enforcement mechanism available to them as individuals.
Practical Steps to Take Today
First, check every platform you use or are considering against the ABEIS blacklist and the AMF's authorised-provider registers. This takes minutes and is the single most effective protective step available to you.
Second, if you have already traded on a platform you cannot verify as authorised, collect every piece of transaction data you can access: trade confirmations, deposit and withdrawal records, screenshots of your portfolio history. Do this now, before the platform potentially disappears.
Third, use a crypto tax calculator to work out your capital gains or losses across all platforms, including any unlicensed ones. Your obligation to declare does not depend on whether your counterparty was following the rules.
Fourth, consider speaking to a qualified tax adviser familiar with French crypto taxation if your exposure is material. The intersection of unlicensed-platform trades and French PFU reporting is nuanced, and a professional can help you manage disclosure risk.
We previously covered how the AMF added 64 unauthorised crypto sites to France's blacklist earlier in 2026, a trend that the October update confirms is continuing at pace.
For Accounting Firms and Compliance Teams
Practitioners advising French retail clients should treat this update as a prompt to review client portfolios for unlicensed platform exposure. The combination of the AMF's rolling blacklist publication cadence and the DGFiP's increasing access to third-party data creates an environment where undisclosed gains from unlicensed platforms are easier to detect than many clients assume.
Key compliance actions include verifying the authorisation status of all platforms appearing in client transaction histories, ensuring Form 3916-bis declarations are complete for any foreign accounts, and documenting the methodology used to calculate gains where the platform provided no formal records. Firms that help clients calculate crypto taxes accurately now are far better placed than those who wait for a DGFiP inquiry to surface the issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are my gains still taxable if I traded on a blacklisted platform?
Yes. French tax law applies to your gains regardless of whether the platform you used was authorised. The DGFiP does not provide an exemption for trades made on unlicensed sites. You are still required to declare gains and pay any tax owed under the standard PFU framework.
What is the difference between a blacklisted Forex site and a blacklisted crypto-derivatives site?
Retail Forex on the unregulated market and derivatives on crypto-assets are treated as separate product categories under French and EU regulation. Both require specific licences to be offered to French residents. The AMF and ACPR maintain distinct sub-lists for each, but both carry the same warning: do not use them.
How do I check whether a platform is authorised in France?
Use the ABEIS website to check the blacklists, and cross-reference the AMF's registers of authorised PSIs, CIFs, and PSFPs. If the firm does not appear on any positive register and is not carrying an EU passport from an equivalent regulator, treat it as unauthorised until proven otherwise.
Do I need to declare a foreign account with an unlicensed platform on my French tax return?
French tax residents are generally required to declare foreign crypto accounts on Form 3916-bis. The fact that the platform is unlicensed does not remove that obligation. Failure to declare carries separate penalties from those applicable to undeclared gains.
I have no transaction records from the platform. How do I calculate crypto taxes?
Start by recovering whatever data you can: wallet addresses, deposit and withdrawal records, emails confirming trades. Blockchain explorers can help reconstruct on-chain activity. A crypto tax calculator can then aggregate those records and produce a reportable gain or loss figure. If records are genuinely unrecoverable, a tax adviser can help you document a reasonable estimation methodology for the DGFiP.