Publishing Verified Trader Performance — European Union Regulatory Overview

How NakedPnL is positioned across the EU/EEA under MiFID II, MiCA, GDPR, and the ePrivacy Directive, with note on national-regulator implementation.

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 across the European Union and the European Economic Area. Twenty-seven EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway implement the harmonised rules through national regulators; the platform's posture is consistent across all of them, with member-state nuances flagged where relevant.

How NakedPnL is classified in the European Union

NakedPnL's activity is the production and distribution of factual performance data. The platform does not hold a MiFID II authorisation, does not appear on any national register of investment firms, and does not provide any investment service or investment activity within Annex I to MiFID II.

MiFID II and the definition of investment advice

Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments (MiFID II) defines investment advice in Article 4(1)(4) as the provision of personal recommendations to a client, either upon its request or at the initiative of the investment firm, in respect of one or more transactions relating to financial instruments. Personal is the operative word: a recommendation is personal when it is presented as suitable for that person, or based on a consideration of that person's circumstances.

ESMA's Q&A on investor protection topics (ESMA35-43-349) and the Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/565 elaborate the line. A general recommendation issued through distribution channels and addressed to the public at large is not a personal recommendation; an output that is presented as suitable for a specific person, or that is based on consideration of that person's circumstances, is.

NakedPnL publishes the same registry data to every reader of a given page. The platform does not collect suitability information, does not run any client-onboarding suitability assessment under MiFID II Article 25(2), and does not tailor any output to an individual reader. On those facts, the published content is general information and is outside the MiFID II investment-advice perimeter.

MiCA and crypto-asset services

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) regulates the issuance and offer of crypto-assets, the public offer or admission to trading of crypto-asset reference tokens (ARTs and EMTs), and a defined set of crypto-asset services in Article 3(1)(16). Those services include custody, exchange, execution, placement, reception and transmission of orders, advice, and portfolio management.

NakedPnL does not provide any of those services. The platform does not issue any crypto-asset, does not offer any crypto-asset to the public, does not run an exchange or trading venue, does not custody crypto-assets, does not execute orders, and does not provide advice or portfolio management. The publication of factual performance data of consenting traders is not, on the platform's analysis, a service in respect of crypto-assets within the meaning of MiCA Article 3(1)(16).

Where individual traders trade tokens that fall within the MiCA scope on third-party venues, those venues — not NakedPnL — are responsible for any MiCA obligations applicable to their own activity.

Other EU financial-services frameworks

The platform also sits outside the perimeters of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD, 2011/61/EU) because it does not manage any collective investment undertaking. It is outside the UCITS Directive (2009/65/EC) because it does not operate or market any UCITS. It is outside the Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 because it does not offer or admit to trading any transferable security.

The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR, EU 596/2014) imposes general prohibitions on insider dealing and market manipulation that apply to all market participants. The platform's published data is descriptive of past activity by consenting traders on third-party venues and does not in itself constitute trading.

What NakedPnL does not do

• No copy trading. The platform cannot replicate one trader's positions into another user's account. Copy-trading services are likely to be portfolio-management services or reception-and-transmission of orders under MiFID II.
• No personal recommendations. The platform does not collect suitability information and does not provide tailored advice.
• No broker affiliate links or rebates from venues that would amount to inducements under MiFID II Article 24(7)–(9).
• No investor-trader matching. The platform does not arrange transactions between investors and traders.
• No custody. The platform does not hold crypto-assets, fiat, or financial instruments on behalf of users.
• No execution. The platform never sends orders to any venue.

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

What EU/EEA users should know

EU and EEA users should treat the registry as factual performance data and nothing more. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance — a phrase ESMA's guidelines on marketing communications under the Cross-Border Distribution Regulation require regulated firms to display when discussing past performance of investment products. NakedPnL applies an equivalent statement on every trader profile.

If a third party offers to manage your money based on a NakedPnL track record, you should check whether that party is authorised by the competent authority in its home member state, holds the appropriate licence, and complies with the relevant disclosure regime. NakedPnL does not vouch for any third-party manager.

GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive

The platform is a data controller for personal data of EU/EEA users under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR). Lawful bases used 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.

Data-subject rights under Articles 15–22 GDPR — access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, portability, and objection — are exercised through the privacy contact. Withdrawing public-listing consent removes the registry entry from public endpoints. Complaints may be raised with the user's national supervisory authority (the Irish Data Protection Commission, the French CNIL, the German LfDI of each Land, the Italian Garante, and so on).

Cookies and similar technologies are governed by national implementations of Directive 2002/58/EC (the ePrivacy Directive). The platform displays a cookie consent banner to EU/EEA users and uses only essential cookies until consent for additional categories is granted.

National competent authorities

Each EU/EEA member state has its own competent authority responsible for implementation of the EU financial-services framework. The list below is non-exhaustive and intended only to orient readers to the right regulator for their member state.

EU disclaimer variant

The platform applies an EU-specific disclaimer at the surface of the user interface for users in the 27 EU member states and the 3 EEA member states. The disclaimer variant key is eu, configured in lib/jurisdictions.ts, and reads: This service does not constitute investment advice under MiFID II Article 4(1)(4). Performance data is published for informational purposes only. EU/EEA users also see a cookie consent banner consistent with the ePrivacy Directive.

Frequently asked questions