The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has extended the suspension on the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) of FTX (EU) Limited, the European subsidiary of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, until the 30 September 2023.
The decision to extend it was taken on 3 April, according to the filing. CySEC explained that the suspension of the Bahamas-headquartered company’s license aims to allow it “to proceed with the necessary actions in order to comply with the relevant provisions of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017”.
The Cypriot regulator initially suspended the license of the crypto exchange on 11 November 2022 following its collapse and extended the suspension once in December 2022 until March 2023.
CySEC noted that during the suspension, the exchange is not permitted to offer or carry out investment services in the country or enter into any business transaction with any person and accept any new client. Furthermore, FTX is not permitted to advertise itself as an investment services provider.
However, while its authorization is suspended, the regulator allows the company to complete “its own transactions and those of its clients which are before it, in accordance with client instructions.” FTX is also permitted to return all funds and financial instruments that belong to clients.
Meanwhile, new charges against FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried were recently brought up of bribing Chinese officials with $40 million to unfreeze his hedge fund’s accounts in late 2021. The former billionaire now faces 2 counts of inducement which include securities fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, among others.
