Regulatory overview · Not legal advice

Publishing Verified Trader Performance — France Regulatory Overview

How NakedPnL is positioned in France under the AMF, the ACPR, the Code monétaire et financier, MiFID II, MiCA, and the CNIL-supervised GDPR regime.

By NakedPnL Research·May 7, 2026·11 min read

TL;DR

NakedPnL is not authorised in France as a Conseiller en Investissements Financiers (CIF) or as a Prestataire de Services d'Investissement (PSI) and does not appear in the AMF GECO or REGAFI public registers.
The conseil en investissement perimeter under Article L.321-1 of the Code monétaire et financier and Article D.321-1 mirrors MiFID II Article 4(1)(4); impersonal published content is positioned outside that perimeter.
MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) governs crypto-asset services across the EU; NakedPnL does not provide a crypto-asset service under MiCA Article 3(1)(16).
Personal data of French residents is processed under GDPR and the Loi Informatique et Libertés, supervised by the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL).
France is mapped to the eu disclaimer variant in lib/jurisdictions.ts, with a MiFID II Article 4(1)(4) notice and explicit consent for cookies.

NakedPnL operates a public registry of verified investment performance produced by individual traders who voluntarily connect read-only exchange API keys or sign on-chain wallet attestations. Daily NAV snapshots feed a time-weighted return (TWR) calculation; results are recorded in an append-only, SHA-256 chained ledger and Merkle-anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps so any third party can independently re-verify them.

This page describes how that activity is positioned under French law, with reference to the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), the Code monétaire et financier (CMF), the AMF Règlement général (RGAMF), MiFID II, MiCA, and the GDPR / Loi Informatique et Libertés framework supervised by the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL).

How NakedPnL is classified in France

NakedPnL's activity is the production and distribution of factual performance data. The platform is not authorised as a Prestataire de Services d'Investissement under Article L.531-1 CMF, is not registered as a Conseiller en Investissements Financiers under Article L.541-1 CMF, and is not registered as a Prestataire de Services sur Actifs Numériques (PSAN) under Article L.54-10-3 CMF (the French regime that pre-dated MiCA). The platform does not appear in the AMF GECO register of CIFs or the ACPR REGAFI register of regulated financial institutions.

Conseil en investissement: Article D.321-1 CMF

The conseil en investissement perimeter is set out in Article L.321-1, 5° CMF and detailed in Article D.321-1, 5° CMF: it is the provision of personal recommendations to a client, either at the client's request or on the firm's initiative, in respect of one or more transactions concerning financial instruments. The wording mirrors MiFID II Article 4(1)(4); the operative element is that the recommendation must be presented as suitable for a specific client or be based on consideration of the client's circumstances.

The AMF position-recommendation DOC-2008-23 (Marketing of complex financial instruments to retail clients), AMF position DOC-2013-08 (cumulative requirement for personal recommendation), and the ESMA Q&A on investor protection consistently distinguish personal recommendations from impersonal information and general market commentary.

NakedPnL does not produce client-specific outputs. The registry shows the same content to every reader of a given page; the platform does not collect a client's connaissance et expérience or financial objectives and does not run a test d'adéquation under Article L.533-13 CMF. On those facts, the platform's analysis is that the published content is general information and is outside the conseil en investissement perimeter.

PSI and CIF perimeters

Article L.531-1 CMF defines a Prestataire de Services d'Investissement as a credit institution authorised to provide investment services or an entreprise d'investissement authorised by the ACPR. NakedPnL does not provide any of the investment services listed in Article D.321-1 CMF: it does not receive or transmit orders, does not execute orders for the account of clients, does not deal on its own account, does not manage portfolios, does not underwrite or place financial instruments, and does not operate a multilateral or organised trading facility.

Article L.541-1 CMF defines the Conseiller en Investissements Financiers status, supervised by the AMF and operationally administered through professional associations (associations professionnelles agréées). The CIF status is required to provide investment advice in France in respect of transactions on financial instruments, real estate investment vehicles, or certain other products. NakedPnL does not provide investment advice within the Article L.541-1 perimeter and is not registered as a CIF in the AMF GECO register.

MiFID II, MiCA, and EU-level overlay

MiFID II (Directive 2014/65/EU) and MiFIR (Regulation 600/2014) set the conduct-of-business framework for investment firms across the EU; their French transposition into the CMF and RGAMF governs French PSIs. NakedPnL is not an investment firm under MiFID II Article 4(1)(1) and does not provide an investment service under Annex I, Section A. The platform is also not an ancillary-service provider under Annex I, Section B in respect of any third-party regulated firm.

MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) entered into application for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) on 30 December 2024. Crypto-asset services are listed in Article 3(1)(16) and detailed in Annex I — including custody, exchange, transfer, advice, and portfolio management of crypto-assets. NakedPnL does not provide any of those services. Read-only API keys and on-chain wallet attestations do not confer custody, exchange, or transfer authority.

What NakedPnL does not do

No copy trading. The platform cannot replicate a trader's positions into another user's account.
No conseil en investissement under Article D.321-1, 5° CMF.
No reception or transmission of orders under Article D.321-1, 1° CMF.
No portfolio management for clients under Article D.321-1, 4° CMF.
No CIF activity under Article L.541-1 CMF.
No crypto-asset service under MiCA Article 3(1)(16) or Article L.54-10-2 CMF.
No custody of crypto-assets, fiat, or financial instruments.
No démarchage bancaire et financier under Article L.341-1 CMF.

These design choices are encoded as feature flags in the codebase and protected by a continuous-integration test that fails the build if any flag is changed.

What French users should know

French users should treat the registry as factual performance data. Les performances passées ne préjugent pas des performances futures — a phrase the AMF and ESMA require regulated firms to display alongside past-performance information. NakedPnL applies an equivalent statement on every trader profile.

If a third party offers to manage your money based on a NakedPnL track record, that party is responsible for its own AMF or ACPR authorisation. Check the AMF GECO register, the ACPR REGAFI register, and the AMF blacklist (liste noire des sites internet et entités non autorisées) before transacting with any firm that holds itself out as authorised. NakedPnL does not vouch for any third-party manager.

Données personnelles: GDPR, Loi Informatique et Libertés, CNIL

GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) applies directly. The Loi Informatique et Libertés (n° 78-17 du 6 janvier 1978, modifiée), as updated by the Loi du 20 juin 2018 and Ordinance n° 2018-1125, supplements it nationally. The CNIL is the French supervisory authority and issues binding guidance, including the délibération n° 2020-091 on cookies and the délibération n° 2020-092 on the consent recommendation.

Lawful bases used by the platform include performance of a contract for users with an account, legitimate interests for minimal aggregated analytics, and explicit consent for the public listing of a trader's handle and TWR series in the registry. Cookies and similar technologies are subject to the explicit consent requirement under Article 82 of the Loi Informatique et Libertés. Users can exercise rights under Articles 15 to 22 GDPR through the privacy contact, and may complain to the CNIL via the cnil.fr complaint portal.

Tax considerations

NakedPnL is not a French intermédiaire financier and does not produce IFU (Imprimés Fiscaux Uniques) or pre-filled tax declarations. Capital gains for individual investors are taxed under Articles 150-0 A et seq. of the Code général des impôts, with the prélèvement forfaitaire unique (PFU, the 'flat tax') of 30% applying to most regimes. Crypto-asset gains are taxed under Article 150 VH bis CGI for occasional sellers. A French expert-comptable or fiscaliste is the right resource for specific questions.

EU disclaimer variant for France

France is part of the European Union and is mapped to the eu disclaimer variant in lib/jurisdictions.ts. The user-visible additional notice reads: This service does not constitute investment advice under MiFID II Article 4(1)(4). Performance data is published for informational purposes only. The eu variant also requires a cookie consent banner and explicit consent under GDPR and the French ePrivacy implementation.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Is NakedPnL authorised by the AMF or the ACPR?

No. NakedPnL is not registered as a CIF in the AMF GECO register, is not authorised as a PSI in the ACPR REGAFI register, and is not registered as a PSAN under the legacy Article L.54-10-3 CMF regime. The platform's posture is that its publishing activity falls outside those licensing perimeters.

Does the platform provide conseil en investissement under Article D.321-1, 5° CMF?

No. The platform does not collect a client's connaissance et expérience or financial objectives and does not perform a test d'adéquation. The same registry data is shown to every reader of a given page. On that basis, the platform's analysis is that the activity is general information rather than a personal recommendation under Article D.321-1, 5° CMF.

Does MiCA require NakedPnL to register as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider?

The platform's analysis is that it does not provide a crypto-asset service under MiCA Article 3(1)(16). It does not custody, exchange, transfer, advise on, or manage crypto-assets. Read-only API keys and on-chain wallet attestations confer no spending or transfer authority.

Does the démarchage bancaire et financier regime under Article L.341-1 CMF apply?

Démarchage applies to unsolicited contact with a person to propose a banking or financial transaction. NakedPnL does not engage in unsolicited contact and does not propose transactions. The platform is a public-facing publisher that users actively visit; the démarchage regime is not engaged.

How do I exercise my GDPR rights as a French resident?

Traders can withdraw their public-listing consent from account settings, which removes the registry entry from public endpoints. For broader rights under Articles 15 to 22 GDPR, contact the privacy team via the channel listed in the privacy notice. Complaints may be addressed to the CNIL through the complaint portal at cnil.fr.

If a CIF or PSI wants to advertise NakedPnL track records, can they?

That is for the regulated firm and its compliance function to assess against the RGAMF Articles 314-1 et seq., the AMF position DOC-2011-24 on the marketing of complex financial instruments, and the past-performance presentation rules. NakedPnL does not approve those communications.

References