The European branch of US-based crypto exchange Coinbase
$2.72B
This follows issues with how the company monitored certain transactions from 2021 to 2022.
According to a blog post published on November 6, the issue came from mistakes in Coinbase’s software. These errors caused the system to miss parts of some transactions when checking for unusual or suspicious activity.
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Coinbase found the problem during regular internal checks. The company fixed the system within a few weeks and later reviewed all transactions that might have been affected.
Coinbase examined 185,000 transactions and filed 2,700 reports of suspicious activity, which totaled around $15 million. The reports did not confirm that any illegal activity occurred, but Coinbase filed them to meet Ireland’s anti-money laundering rules.
Reports from Irish Independent noted that the total value of transactions during the affected period exceeded $202 billion. These made up about 31% of Coinbase Europe’s total transaction volume during the period.
The Central Bank based the fine on Coinbase’s average annual income in Ireland from 2021 to 2024, estimated at $480 million.
As a registered crypto service provider, Coinbase is required to monitor for possible money laundering and report any risks. The monitoring failure occurred due to three coding errors across five of the 21 checks the company uses.
Recently, Coinbase responded to criticism from a US banking group seeking to stop the company’s efforts to obtain a federal trust charter. What did Paul Grewal say? Read the full story.
