Coinbase has been fined €21.46 million (approximately $23 million) by the Central Bank of Ireland for serious lapses in its anti-money laundering (AML) systems and transaction monitoring procedures. The regulator said Coinbase Europe failed to adequately monitor more than 30 million transactions worth over €176 billion ($192 billion), allowing potential criminal activity to go unchecked for nearly three years.
The Central Bank’s investigation revealed that between 2020 and 2021, about 31% of Coinbase Europe’s total transactions were either insufficiently reviewed or not monitored at all. The exchange reportedly took almost three years to retrospectively assess these transactions, eventually flagging 2,708 of them as suspicious and submitting reports to Ireland’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The flagged cases involved alleged instances of money laundering, fraud, cyberattacks, drug trafficking, and even child exploitation.
Coinbase admitted to breaching AML regulations by failing to monitor more than 30.4 million transactions and neglecting 185,000 that required additional scrutiny. It also acknowledged weaknesses in its internal controls designed to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. Initially, the Central Bank imposed a €30.66 million fine, but a 30% reduction was granted after Coinbase settled early. The final sanction still awaits confirmation by Ireland’s High Court.
Colm Kincaid, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, said the case underscores the need for robust compliance systems in the crypto sector. He warned that the speed, anonymity, and global nature of digital assets make them especially vulnerable to abuse by criminals. Kincaid urged crypto firms to immediately report system failures to regulators to minimise risks.
This isn’t Coinbase’s first regulatory penalty. The company has faced enforcement actions in several countries for similar lapses. In 2023, a Moscow court fined Coinbase 1 million rubles for failing to store Russian clients’ data locally, while in 2024, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority sanctioned its subsidiary, CB Payments Limited, for accepting high-risk clients in violation of financial crime rules. That UK case marked the first of its kind against a crypto firm and involved roughly $24.9 million in deposits tied to $226 million in questionable transactions.
The Irish fine adds to Coinbase’s growing list of global regulatory challenges, highlighting the increasing scrutiny of crypto exchanges’ AML practices as authorities tighten oversight of the industry’s compliance standards.
