The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) warns of a dangerous practice in the crypto sector about so-called “crypto company hijacking.” These cases involve the registration of company managers in the Commercial Register without the knowledge of the actual owners, through the use of forged documents.
This is stated by Desislava Laskova, Director of the “Regulatory Regimes of Investment Activity – Investment Intermediaries and Crypto-Asset Service Providers” Directorate at the FSC, in an interview with Darik Radio. According to her, such fraud schemes pose serious risks both to the licensing of the companies concerned and to unlawful actions carried out in their name, including the taking out of loans.
The interview is conducted at a moment when the period for CASPs applications is ending and is established a significant difference between the regulated financial sector and parts of the crypto business, which until now have operated in a largely unregulated environment. At the same time, we also see growing commitment on the part of companies to bring their activities into line with the new rules, which is an important step towards building a more mature, transparent and sustainable crypto-asset market.
Against this background, the FSC is already applying the European MiCA Regulation, which introduces a single legal framework for crypto-assets in the European Union. A transitional period applies until 1 July 2026, after which providers operating without a license will no longer be allowed to operate on the market.
The FSC is the competent authority for the supervision of crypto-assets in Bulgaria, with the exception of electronic money tokens, which fall under the supervision of the Bulgarian National Bank.
Out of eight license applications submitted:
- one company has already been licensed (investment intermediary);
- three applications are currently under review;
- four companies have been refused at the completeness check stage due to the absence of a substantial portion of the required documentation and communication issues.
“Through a circular letter, we invited companies to meetings, which is an established communication practice of the Financial Supervision Commission. Our aim is to maintain an open dialogue with the sector and to provide concrete guidance to companies on how to prepare their licensing documentation so that it fully complies with the requirements of the MiCA Regulation and the national regulatory framework,” Laskova notes.
The FSC reminds market participants that the licensing procedure takes between 4 and 6 months. Therefore, companies wishing to continue operating legally after the end of the transitional period should submit their documents no later than 16 February.
The full interview is available here.
More information on the crypto-asset market and the regulatory activities of the Financial Supervision Commission can be found in the dedicated crypto-assets section on the FSC’s official website:
https://www.fsc.bg/kriptoaktivi/