Regulatory overview · Not legal advice

Publishing Verified Trader Performance — Spain Regulatory Overview

How NakedPnL is positioned in Spain under the CNMV, the Banco de España, the Ley del Mercado de Valores, MiFID II, MiCA, and the AEPD-supervised GDPR regime.

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

TL;DR

NakedPnL is not authorised by the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) as an Empresa de Asesoramiento Financiero (EAF) or as any other Empresa de Servicios de Inversión (ESI), and does not appear in the CNMV's public registers.
The asesoramiento en materia de inversión perimeter under Article 140 of the Ley 6/2023 (Ley del Mercado de Valores y de los Servicios de Inversión, LMVSI) mirrors MiFID II Article 4(1)(4); impersonal published content is positioned outside it.
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 Spanish residents is processed under GDPR and the Ley Orgánica 3/2018 (LOPDGDD), supervised by the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD).
Spain 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 Spanish law, with reference to the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the Banco de España, the Ley 6/2023 de los Mercados de Valores y de los Servicios de Inversión (LMVSI), the Real Decreto 813/2023 on the legal regime of investment services firms, MiFID II, MiCA, and the GDPR / LOPDGDD framework supervised by the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD).

How NakedPnL is classified in Spain

NakedPnL's activity is the production and distribution of factual performance data. The platform is not authorised by the CNMV under Article 138 LMVSI as any class of Empresa de Servicios de Inversión (ESI) — sociedad de valores, agencia de valores, sociedad gestora de carteras, or empresa de asesoramiento financiero (EAF) — and does not appear in the CNMV registers of authorised entities or the Banco de España registers of supervised institutions.

Asesoramiento en materia de inversión: Article 140 LMVSI

The asesoramiento en materia de inversión perimeter is set out in Article 140.1.g) LMVSI: it is the provision of personalised recommendations to a client, either at the client's request or on the firm's initiative, in respect of one or more transactions involving specific financial instruments. The wording follows 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.

CNMV criteria, including the long-standing CNMV criterio sobre el concepto de asesoramiento en materia de inversión and the implementing technical standards, distinguish personalised recommendations from impersonal information and general market commentary. The same line is recognised in ESMA's Q&A on MiFID II investor protection.

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 conocimientos y experiencia, situación financiera, or objetivos de inversión and does not perform an evaluación de idoneidad under Article 213 LMVSI. On those facts, the platform's analysis is that the published content is general information and is outside the asesoramiento en materia de inversión perimeter.

EAF, ESI, and the licensing perimeter

Article 138 LMVSI sets out the categories of Empresas de Servicios de Inversión: sociedad de valores, agencia de valores, sociedad gestora de carteras, and empresa de asesoramiento financiero (EAF, including the financial advisory entity introduced by Law 5/2015 to recognise persona física advisers). Article 140 LMVSI lists the investment services and ancillary services that may be provided by ESIs and align with MiFID II Annex I.

NakedPnL does not provide any of those services. It does not deal on its own account, does not execute orders, does not receive or transmit orders, does not manage individual portfolios under a mandato discrecional, does not place or underwrite financial instruments, and does not operate any trading venue. The platform is also not authorised as an EAF or EAFN (the persona natural variant introduced by the LMVSI).

MiFID II, MiCA, and EU-level overlay

MiFID II (Directive 2014/65/EU) and MiFIR (Regulation 600/2014) set the EU-wide conduct-of-business framework for investment firms. Their Spanish transposition into the LMVSI and the Real Decreto 813/2023 governs Spanish ESIs. NakedPnL is not an investment firm under MiFID II Article 4(1)(1).

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. The CNMV operates the Spanish national MiCA implementation in coordination with the Banco de España. Crypto-asset advertising in Spain is also subject to CNMV Circular 1/2022, which requires advertising to comply with specific disclosure rules and prior CNMV notification thresholds. NakedPnL does not provide crypto-asset services and does not engage in crypto-asset advertising under Circular 1/2022.

What NakedPnL does not do

No copy trading. The platform cannot replicate a trader's positions into another user's account.
No asesoramiento en materia de inversión under Article 140.1.g) LMVSI.
No reception or transmission of orders.
No gestión de carteras for clients.
No EAF or EAFN activity under Article 138 LMVSI.
No crypto-asset service under MiCA Article 3(1)(16).
No custody of crypto-assets, fiat, or financial instruments.
No publicidad de criptoactivos within the scope of CNMV Circular 1/2022.

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 Spanish users should know

Spanish users should treat the registry as factual performance data. Las rentabilidades pasadas no son indicativas de rentabilidades futuras — a phrase the CNMV 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 CNMV authorisation. Check the CNMV's public registers of ESIs and the CNMV's advertencias al público (warnings) before transacting with any firm that holds itself out as authorised. NakedPnL does not vouch for any third-party manager.

Datos personales: GDPR, LOPDGDD, AEPD

GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) applies directly. The Ley Orgánica 3/2018 de Protección de Datos Personales y garantía de los derechos digitales (LOPDGDD) supplements it nationally. The Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) is the Spanish supervisory authority and issues binding guidance, including the Guía sobre el uso de las cookies (most recent revision dating from 2023).

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 generally require explicit consent under Article 22.2 of the Ley 34/2002 de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Información y de Comercio Electrónico (LSSI-CE). Users can exercise rights under Articles 15 to 22 GDPR through the privacy contact and may complain to the AEPD via the aepd.es complaint portal.

Tax considerations

NakedPnL is not a Spanish entidad financiera and does not produce tax certificates or pre-filled tax declarations. Capital gains for individuals are taxed under Articles 33 et seq. of the Ley 35/2006 del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (LIRPF), with the rentas del ahorro scale applying to most financial gains. Crypto-asset gains follow the same scale and are subject to specific reporting under Royal Decree 249/2023 (Modelos 172, 173, and 721). An asesor fiscal colegiado is the right resource for specific questions.

EU disclaimer variant for Spain

Spain 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 Spanish ePrivacy implementation in Article 22.2 LSSI-CE.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Is NakedPnL authorised by the CNMV?

No. NakedPnL is not authorised under Article 138 LMVSI as any class of ESI — including EAF or EAFN — and does not appear in the CNMV's public registers. The platform's posture is that its publishing activity falls outside those licensing perimeters.

Does the platform provide asesoramiento en materia de inversión under Article 140.1.g) LMVSI?

No. The platform does not collect a client's conocimientos y experiencia, situación financiera, or objetivos de inversión and does not perform an evaluación de idoneidad. 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 personalised recommendation.

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 CNMV Circular 1/2022 on crypto-asset advertising apply to NakedPnL?

Circular 1/2022 applies to publicidad de criptoactivos presented as objects of investment. NakedPnL does not advertise specific crypto-assets as investments; it publishes factual performance data of consenting traders whose track records may include crypto positions among other instruments. The platform's analysis is that the editorial publication of factual performance data sits outside Circular 1/2022, but firms that quote NakedPnL data for advertising purposes should make their own assessment.

How do I exercise my GDPR rights as a Spanish 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 AEPD through the aepd.es portal.

If an EAF or ESI wants to advertise NakedPnL track records, can they?

That is for the regulated firm and its compliance function to assess against Articles 208 to 222 LMVSI, the Real Decreto 813/2023, and ESMA's Q&A on investor protection covering past-performance presentation. Where crypto-assets are involved, CNMV Circular 1/2022 may also apply. NakedPnL does not approve those communications.

References