Osborne Clarke advised Arquant Capital, a player in the crypto-asset market, in its AMF authorization as an alternative investment fund management company (AIFM)

Osborne Clarke has advised Arquant Capital, a leading player in the crypto-asset market labelled by the global competitiveness pole of Finance Innovation, in the obtention of its authorisation as an asset management company authorised to manage alternative investment funds ("AIF") before the Financial market authority (“Autorité des Marchés Financiers” “AMF”). Arquant Capital will now operate with the visa n°GP-202214.

Thus, Arquant Capital becomes the first fintech in the digital assets sector to obtain an asset management company authorization in France enabling to offer actively specialised professional funds (“fonds professionnels spécialisés“"FPS") invested directly in digital assets. The company is preparing the imminent launch of its funds dedicated to professional and institutional investors. Arquant Capital will launch in the next few days the first FPS entirely dedicated to Ethereum.

That authorisation application is part of an investment strategy in digital assets that Arquant Capital has been deploying for three years. The investment strategy is declined via a process combining algorithmic management and discretionary monitoring based on the expertise of the management team and on a proprietary Artificial Intelligence technology.

As an asset management company, Arquant Capital will now be subject to the rules set out in Directive 2011/61/EU (called the "AIFMD") and Directive 2015/64/EU (the "MiFID II"), which aims to strengthen the protection of retail investors.

Thanks to the intense work with the AMF teams and the support of Osborne Clarke and in particular Karima Lachgar, we have succeeded in obtaining our authorisation to offer collective fund management and discretionary individual portfolio management.

Eron Angjele, CEO and co-founder of Arquant Capital

Eron Angjele, CEO and co-founder of Arquant Capital, declares:  “From the beginning of our activity we aimed to facilitate access to digital assets for professional investors and to provide a solution for managing volatility risk in this asset category. These are two main obstacles for these investors to benefit from the advantages of diversifying their portfolio into crypto-assets. Thanks to the intense work with the AMF teams and the support of Osborne Clarke and in particular Karima Lachgar, we have succeeded in obtaining our authorisation to offer collective fund management and discretionary individual portfolio management. This is a new offer which completes the ecosystem of the Paris market and which has been labelled by Finance Innovation“

Karima Lachgar, partner lawyer within Osborne Clarke, adds: « Arquant Capital's authorisation represents the outcome of a particularly innovative strategic structuring of the management offer and investment strategies, in the context of which we have had regular and constructive discussions with the AMF. Our perfect knowledge of the asset management and crypto-asset sectors, as well as the close and trusting relationship we have had with the regulator for many years, have enabled us to better understand their expectations while finding the right legal solutions for our client. We are very proud to have been able to assist Arquant Capital throughout that process, from the structuring of the company and the group to which it belongs, to the design of the business plan and the drafting of the FPS documentation. »

In the context of its authorization as an AIF management company, Arquant Capital was advised by Karima Lachgar (partner) on the regulatory aspects (governance, programme of operations, procedures, and FPS prospectus) and the contractual negotiation with Arquant's service providers and clients as well as by Dorothée Chambon (partner) for the tax aspects and Jérôme Scapoli (partner) for the employment law aspects.