Italy Blocks ArbiSmart Over Regulatory Breach Despite EU Licensing

Italy’s financial regulator, CONSOB, has officially blocked access to the website of ArbiSmart, a cryptocurrency arbitrage platform, citing unauthorized investment services targeting Italian investors.

ArbiSmart, which is registered and regulated in Lithuania under the oversight of the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS), has been offering automated crypto arbitrage, interest-bearing wallets, and its native RBIS token to clients across the European Union. While this registration allows it to legally operate in Lithuania and comply with EU-level anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) obligations, it does not grant blanket permission to operate in all EU member states.

CONSOB’s enforcement action stems from the platform’s failure to obtain the necessary local authorization or formally notify the Italian regulator through a passporting arrangement. Under Italy’s Growth Decree (Law No. 58 of 2019), CONSOB has the authority to block websites that offer financial or crypto-asset services without proper national registration.

“Offering investment or crypto services in Italy requires specific compliance with our national rules,” said a CONSOB spokesperson. “Being registered elsewhere in the EU does not exempt platforms from their obligations here.”

Italy’s proactive stance has been already serving as a model for other countries grappling with similar regulatory challenges, given the global nature of digital assets and online trading.

The watchdog added new domains to its register of banned internet sources for illegally promoting trading products in the country. Specifically, Italian investors have been warned not to take out any financial services from the companies incorporated in the latest round of blackouts. This includes:

• “Egplus.vip” (website https://egplus.vip);
• “Egalite.bond” (website https://egalite.bond);
• Arbismart UAB (website https://arbismart.com and related page https://dashboard.arbismart.com);
• “Blockbyteq” (website https://blockbyteq.top).

The action has been supported by the ‘Decreto Crescita’ law allowing CONSOB to obstruct Italian investors’ access to online brokers. The regulators took similar action throughout the past few years, ordering nearly 1304 domains to be blocked.

This decree allows Consob to order Italian internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites operating illegally in the region. However, due to technical reasons, there can be a delay of several days before the black-out of these websites takes effect, especially if the websites temporarily shut down.