AMF Warns Public Against Unauthorized Crypto and Investment Actors in France
France's financial markets regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), has published a new public warning naming several operators who are soliciting investments in crypto assets and other financial products without holding the required authorizations. If you've been approached by any of these actors, or if you're trying to figure out whether a platform you're using is legitimate, this update matters to you directly. And if you do hold crypto in France, understanding the regulatory environment is just as important as knowing how to calculate crypto taxes on any gains you've made.
What the AMF Warning Actually Says
The AMF regularly publishes blacklists and public alerts as part of its investor-protection mandate. This latest communiqué, dated 8 July 2026, puts the public on notice that a new group of actors has been identified as offering investment opportunities, including crypto-related products, without proper authorization under French or European law.
Who Gets Named and Why It Matters
The AMF's warnings typically name specific websites, trading names, and sometimes company registrations. The regulator flags these actors because they are operating outside the legal framework that requires registration, capital adequacy, conduct standards, and client-protection obligations. In France, any firm offering crypto asset services to the public must be registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP, or Prestataire de Services sur Actifs Numériques, PSAN in French) with the AMF, or hold a MiCA authorization where that framework applies. Firms that skip this process expose clients to serious risks: no investor compensation scheme, no conduct rules, no recourse if funds disappear.
The AMF's warning is not a civil or criminal conviction. It is a public alert designed to inform investors before they commit funds. That distinction is important: the named actors have not necessarily been prosecuted yet, but the regulator has determined there is enough evidence that they lack authorization and pose a risk to the public.
The Pattern the AMF Keeps Seeing
This is not an isolated incident. The AMF has been issuing these alerts with increasing frequency across 2025 and 2026, covering everything from unregistered crypto exchanges to fraudulent tokenized real-estate schemes and fake DeFi yield platforms. The regulator has noted that many unauthorized actors use polished websites, social media advertising, and even fake regulatory logos to appear credible. Some cold-call prospective investors directly. The geography of these operations is often deliberately opaque: the websites may appear to be based in France but are actually operated from jurisdictions with little regulatory oversight.
For context, you can see the scale of the ongoing enforcement effort in our earlier coverage of the AMF blacklisting 38 unauthorized crypto platforms in France, which details how the regulator's enforcement pipeline has been building throughout 2026.
How to Check Whether a Platform Is Authorized
The AMF provides two practical tools every French investor should bookmark before putting money anywhere.
REGAFI and the PSAN/DASP Registry
REGAFI is the official register of authorized financial firms in France, maintained jointly by the AMF and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR). For crypto specifically, the AMF maintains a separate public list of registered and, more recently, licensed DASP entities. If a platform isn't on one of these lists, it is not authorized to offer services in France. Checking takes about two minutes and can save you from losing everything.
The AMF's Blacklist (Listes Noires)
Beyond the authorized registry, the AMF also maintains a running blacklist of identified unauthorized or fraudulent actors. This list is updated regularly and is publicly searchable on the AMF's website. Cross-referencing any platform you're considering against both the authorized list and the blacklist is the baseline due-diligence step every retail investor in France should take.
The Tax Dimension: What Happens If You Invested with an Unauthorized Actor
This is where things get complicated, and it's a question that comes up far more often than people expect. If you sent money to an unauthorized platform and can't get it back, you may be sitting on a capital loss. Or, if you somehow did receive returns before the platform went dark, those returns are still taxable in France regardless of whether the operator was legitimate.
Losses from Scams and Unauthorized Platforms
Under French tax rules, crypto assets are generally subject to the flat tax (Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique, PFU) at 30 percent on disposal gains, or the progressive income tax scale if you elect that option. When a platform is identified as fraudulent or simply disappears with your funds, the tax treatment of the resulting loss is not automatic. French tax law distinguishes between a disposal (cession) and a theft or fraud loss, and the rules on whether and how you can offset a fraud loss against other crypto gains are specific and require careful handling.
The key practical point: if you've lost access to funds held on an unauthorized platform, you should document everything now. Screenshots of account balances, transaction histories, deposit confirmations, and any correspondence with the operator are all potentially relevant both for any future legal claim and for your tax position. Don't wait until the annual filing season to try to reconstruct this.
Returns Received Before a Platform Failed
If you actually withdrew gains from an unauthorized platform before it collapsed, those gains are reportable on your French tax return. The source of the gain being an illegal operator does not exempt it from tax. This is a consistent principle in French and most European tax law: tax follows economic substance, not regulatory compliance. Using a reliable crypto tax calculator to reconstruct your actual disposal history is essential here, especially if records are incomplete because the platform has disappeared.
Practical Steps for Anyone Affected
If You're Currently Invested with a Platform You're Unsure About
Check the AMF's authorized lists and blacklist today. If the platform doesn't appear on the authorized registry, or does appear on the blacklist, stop sending money immediately. Do not make further deposits even if the platform promises higher returns or threatens to freeze your account if you don't top up (this threat is itself a classic fraud tactic). Contact the AMF's investor relations team or a regulated financial adviser to understand your options.
If You've Already Lost Funds
File a complaint with the AMF and, for potential criminal fraud, with local law enforcement or the Parquet National Financier (PNF), which handles financial crime in France. Keep every piece of documentation you have. The AMF cannot guarantee recovery of funds, but official complaints contribute to the enforcement record and may support any eventual civil or criminal proceedings.
Getting Your Crypto Tax Report Right
Whether you've been affected by an unauthorized operator or simply hold crypto through legitimate platforms, your annual French tax filing needs to reflect your actual position accurately. That means tracking every disposal, every conversion between tokens, and every withdrawal that constitutes a taxable event under French rules. A proper crypto tax report requires complete transaction data, cost-basis tracking, and correct application of the PFU or progressive scale. If you're unsure where to start, see our guide on how to file crypto taxes correctly for a practical walkthrough of the key concepts that apply across EU jurisdictions.
The Bigger Regulatory Picture in France
France was one of the first EU member states to establish a comprehensive DASP registration regime, and the AMF has been active in enforcement well before MiCA came into full effect. The current wave of public warnings reflects both the regulator's genuine commitment to investor protection and the ongoing reality that bad actors continue to target French retail investors, often using crypto products as the hook because of continued public interest in digital assets.
MiCA (the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) has introduced a pan-European licensing framework that in principle should make it easier for investors to verify credentials: a MiCA-authorized firm in one EU member state can passport its services across the bloc. But MiCA authorization takes time and many legitimate startups are still going through the process. Meanwhile, fraudulent operators have no intention of applying. The AMF's blacklist remains the fastest way for French investors to check who the regulator has already flagged.
The volume and frequency of these warnings also serve as a reminder that regulatory compliance and personal tax compliance are connected. Platforms that operate without authorization typically also fail to provide the transaction records you need for accurate tax reporting. When a platform disappears, it often takes your records with it, leaving you with a messy reconstruction job at filing time. Keeping your own records and using a reliable crypto tax calculator throughout the year, rather than scrambling in April, is the best protection against that scenario.
Source: Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF)
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if a platform I use appears on the AMF blacklist?
Stop making new deposits immediately. Document your entire transaction history, including deposits, withdrawals, and any correspondence with the platform. Report the situation to the AMF using their online complaints tool, and consider consulting a regulated financial adviser or lawyer who handles financial fraud. Do not send additional funds even if the platform pressures you to do so.
Are gains from an unauthorized crypto platform still taxable in France?
Yes. French tax law taxes economic gains regardless of whether the platform generating them was legally authorized. If you withdrew profits from an unauthorized platform before it failed, those profits are reportable as crypto capital gains under the standard PFU (flat tax) framework, or under the progressive scale if you elected that option. The illegality of the operator does not create a tax exemption.
Can I claim a tax loss if an unauthorized platform stole my funds?
This is fact-specific and the rules are not straightforward. A simple inability to withdraw does not automatically create a recognized capital loss under French crypto tax rules, which require an actual disposal event. You should seek advice from a qualified tax professional who can assess whether your specific situation gives rise to a deductible loss and what documentation is required to support that position.
How do I check whether a crypto platform is authorized to operate in France?
Use the AMF's official DASP/PSAN registry on its website to check whether a firm is registered or licensed. Also search the AMF's blacklist (listes noires), which names unauthorized or flagged operators. If a firm appears on neither the authorized list nor the blacklist, treat that as a reason to do additional due diligence before investing anything.
How does a crypto tax calculator help when records are incomplete?
A crypto tax calculator aggregates transaction data from exchanges and wallets you can still access, applies the correct cost-basis methodology, and generates a structured crypto tax report. When a platform has gone dark and you've lost access to records there, having comprehensive records from your other accounts is critical. It won't reconstruct records that never existed, but it ensures the rest of your filing is accurate and complete, reducing the risk of an underreporting issue with the French tax authority (Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, DGFiP).