The Bank of Lithuania issued a public warning that LWEX is operating illegally in Lithuania after social media messages promoted investments in crypto-assets and financial instruments via an LWEX-managed trading platform. The central bank said it has not authorised LWEX to provide investment or crypto-asset services in Lithuania and does not supervise its activities. The Bank of Lithuania found no evidence that LWEX is authorised or supervised by financial market authorities in other EU or EEA countries and cautioned that investments made through the platform may show characteristics associated with financial pyramid schemes. It added LWEX to its list of entities without the right to provide financial services in Lithuania, which contains more than 300 companies, and noted it can seek court permission to block websites providing illegal financial services after receiving justified investor complaints. The authority also reiterated retail-investor safeguards, including avoiding impulsive decisions, not investing in products that are not fully understood, verifying that a provider is properly licensed, and treating “easy money” and “no risk” promises as a red flag.
Bank of Lithuania 2025-04-24
Bank of Lithuania warns LWEX is illegally offering crypto-asset and investment services and adds the platform to its unlicensed entities list
The Bank of Lithuania warned against LWEX for illegally operating in Lithuania, promoting unauthorized crypto-asset and financial instrument investments. LWEX is unsupervised by EU or EEA authorities and may resemble financial pyramid schemes. The central bank added LWEX to its unauthorized entities list, emphasizing retail-investor safeguards against impulsive decisions and unverified providers.