ArbiSmart and the 2021 China Crypto Ban: A Sponsored Claim Revisited
A October 2021 sponsored post promoted ArbiSmart's RBIS token with high return promises. What happened next: licence revoked, withdrawals reported stuck, websites blocked in Italy.
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Update 25 September 2026: This article was written in October 2021 as a sponsored post supplied by ArbiSmart and promoted the platform and its RBIS token. We have removed the promotional text, the return promises and the calls to buy. Since then, Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit revoked ArbiSmart's licence FVT000353 on 15 November 2021, investors have reported since early 2022 that withdrawals are not being paid out, and Italy's regulator Consob ordered ArbiSmart's websites to be blocked with resolution no. 23540 of 30 April 2025, published on 2 May 2025.
What did the 2021 sponsored post claim?
The post appeared after China's ban on crypto trading and mining of 24 September 2021 and presented RBIS as a hedge against the market slump. It claimed that the token had risen by 629 percent since 2019 without ever falling and advertised annual returns of up to 45 percent. It presented ArbiSmart as an EU-licensed platform whose automated crypto arbitrage would keep earning in rising and falling markets. None of these claims came from independent sources, and the events that followed contradict them.
What happened to ArbiSmart and RBIS?
- Licence revoked: The list of revoked licences of the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit shows that the virtual currency licence FVT000353 of ArbiSmart OÜ was revoked on 15 November 2021. The "EU licence" the post relied on no longer existed from that day.
- Withdrawals stuck: According to an investigation by the journalism network VSquare, investors reported from January 2022 onward that ArbiSmart did not pay out their deposits and returns in full, and the promised buyback of the RBIS token did not take place. ArbiSmart did not respond to VSquare's request for comment.
- Websites blocked in Italy: With resolution no. 23540 of 30 April 2025, published on 2 May 2025, Consob ordered the blocking of arbismart.com and dashboard.arbismart.com, because crypto-asset services were offered to Italian investors without the authorisation required under the EU's MiCA regulation.
Why were the promised returns never realistic?
Price gaps between large crypto exchanges are small and close within seconds, and fees and transfer times eat into the margin. Steady high returns from arbitrage with little risk are therefore not achievable for a platform that pools small deposits, and a token whose price is set by the platform itself says nothing about real demand. Before depositing money with any crypto provider, check whether it appears in the EU warning list and the ESMA register.
The full story of the platform, with the documents behind it, is in our review ArbiSmart looking back: Estonian licence revoked, websites blocked in Italy.
FAQ
Is ArbiSmart licensed?
No. Estonia revoked the licence of ArbiSmart OÜ on 15 November 2021, and Consob ordered ArbiSmart's websites blocked in Italy on 30 April 2025 because it lacked a MiCA authorisation.
Can I withdraw my money from ArbiSmart?
Investors have reported since early 2022 that withdrawals are not being paid out. Keep all records and contact the police or your national financial regulator.
Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.
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Weekly. 60 seconds. Carefully curated by our editors: no hype, no promo flood, no spam.
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