Austria’s Financial Regulator Warns Onecoin Operating Without License

Another government authority is warning the market about OneCoin, a cryptocurrency scheme widely suspected of being fraudulent.

Following news that police in India had held OneCoin promoters in custody, and that they are brining charges against OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova for fraud, the Austrian Financial Market Authority, the country’s financial regulator, released a warning on its website announcing that OneCoin has no license to perform any banking transactions.

“(OneCoin) is not entitled to carry out banking transactions in Austria that require a license. The provider is therefore not permitted to conduct the issuance and administration of payment instruments such as credit cards, banker’s drafts and traveller’s cheques on a commercial basis, with no limitation applicable to the term of crediting in the case of credit cards,” the warning reads.

This makes Austria the latest member of the growing list of countries that have either sent similar regulatory warnings, investigated the alleged scheme or taken steps to crack down on the service.

As reported, Vietnam’s government has previously stated that OneCoin’s license to operate domestically was fake, while European countries like Germany, the U.K. and Hungary are now involving law enforcement in an effort to investigate and shut down the firm’s operations.

Onecoin image via Twitter