Coinbase was fined 33 million euros

On January 18, 2023, De Nederlandsche Bank ( DNB ) imposed an administrative fine of €3,325,000 (over $3.6 million) on Coinbase Europe Limited. registration with the central bank.

According to the regulator, this is in violation of Dutch regulations, as companies that want to provide cryptocurrency-related services must register with the DNB under the country's Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act.

The monetary authority also noted that the base amount for this category of fines is 2 million euros, indicating that the fine in the case of Coinbase was increased "due to the seriousness and degree of culpability of the non-compliance".

"In increasing the fine, DNB took into account the fact that Coinbase is one of the largest providers of crypto services in the world. In addition, Coinbase has a significant number of customers in the Netherlands who use its crypto services,” the bank said, noting that the exchange does not pay any supervisory fees.

The Dutch central bank also highlighted that Coinbase operated without registration for a long period of time, from mid-November 2020 to the end of August 2022, stressing that it considers this a serious breach.

However, the DNB also reduced the fine by 5% because it said Coinbase had always intended to obtain registration in the Netherlands, which it did on September 22 last year. The registration requirement for crypto service providers was introduced in May 2020.

The lack of registration meant the global exchange was unable to report unusual transactions to the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit during the specified period, and the transfers could have gone unnoticed by investigative authorities, the bank insisted.

Coinbase will have until March 2, 2023 to appeal the fine. Reuters quoted the exchange as saying it disagreed with DNB's decision, which it said "does not contain any criticism of our actual services". The crypto company is currently considering an appeal.

In July 2022, De Nederlandsche Bank introduced an identical measure against Binance. The world's largest crypto exchange was also fined the same amount in euros for offering crypto services in the Netherlands without the required registration.

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Author: GEximius