The Central Bank takes enforcement action against Coinbase Europe Limited for anti-money laundering failures
06 November 2025
Press Release
The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Europe Limited €21,464,734 for breaching its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing transaction monitoring obligations between 2021 and 2025.
The Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) has fined Coinbase Europe Limited (Coinbase Europe) €21,464,734 for breaching its anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting terrorist financing (CFT) obligations with respect to transaction monitoring as required by the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (the CJA 2010) between 23 April 2021 and 19 March 2025.
Coinbase Europe, which is part of the Coinbase Group, provides crypto asset and wallet services to customers globally to facilitate their use of the Coinbase Group’s trading platform to buy and sell crypto assets.
As a virtual asset service provider, Coinbase Europe is required to monitor customer transactions on an ongoing basis. Where Coinbase Europe suspects that a transaction is facilitating money laundering or terrorist financing it is required to file a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) with the national Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Revenue Commissioners as soon as possible.
Coinbase Europe has been fined due to faults in the configuration of their transaction monitoring system, which resulted in more than 30 million transactions not being properly monitored over a 12-month period. The value of these transactions amounted to over €176 billion, and accounted for approximately 31% of all Coinbase Europe transactions conducted in the period when the faults existed.
Further, it took Coinbase Europe almost three years to fully complete the monitoring of the impacted transactions. This subsequent monitoring led to the reporting of 2,708 STRs to the FIU for further analysis and potential investigation.
The STRs submitted in respect of the late monitoring of the transactions contained suspicions associated with serious criminal activities including: money laundering; fraud/scams; drug trafficking; cyber-attacks (malware/ransomware); and child sexual exploitation.
The monitoring of transactions in real time and the filing of STRs without delay is a cornerstone of the effectiveness and efficiency of the AML/CFT regulatory regime. Failure to do so can seriously hinder how the regulatory and criminal justice system can detect, report, disrupt, investigate and prosecute criminality.
Coinbase Europe has accepted that it breached its transaction monitoring obligations under the CJA 2010 by failing to:
- Fully and properly monitor 30,442,437 transactions;
- Adopt internal policies, controls and procedures to prevent and detect the commission of money laundering and terrorist financing; and
- Conduct additional monitoring in respect of 184,790 transactions.
Today’s announcement follows the settlement reached between the Central Bank and Coinbase Europe on 5 November 2025.
Coinbase Europe has admitted the prescribed contraventions and has agreed to the undisputed facts as set out in the Settlement Notice (PDF 543.78KB). As part of the settlement agreement reached between the Central Bank and Coinbase Europe, the Central Bank has determined that sanctions comprising a reprimand and monetary penalty in the amount of €30,663,906 are warranted. The application of a 30% settlement scheme discount brings the amount to €21,464,734. The sanctions have been accepted by Coinbase Europe. The sanctions are subject to confirmation by the High Court and will take effect once confirmed.
Colm Kincaid, Deputy Governor – Consumer & Investor Protection, said:
“To be effective in combatting financial crime, law enforcement agencies rely on regulated financial institutions to have systems in place to monitor transactions and report suspicions. The failure of such a system within any financial institution creates an opportunity for criminals to evade detection – and criminals will take that opportunity.
Crypto has particular technological features which, together with its anonymity-enhancing capabilities and cross-border nature, makes it especially attractive to criminals looking to move their funds. This is why it is especially important that firms engaged in crypto services have robust controls in place to identify and report suspicious transactions.
Where system failures do occur, it is imperative that they are reported to the Central Bank without delay so that appropriate actions can be taken to manage and mitigate the risk.”
Notes to editors
- This is the Central Bank’s 162nd enforcement outcome to date, bringing the total fines imposed by the Central Bank to over €428 million.
- Undisputed Facts Settlement: This is the fourth settlement under the Administrative Sanctions Procedure (ASP) following the changes introduced by the enactment of the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Act, 2023. The ASP guidelines, which the Central Bank published in December 2023, outline the various settlement processes now provided for under the ASP.
- The Central Bank concluded this ASP by way of settlement under the undisputed facts settlement process. The Central Bank may enter into the undisputed facts settlement process with a Subject where there are undisputed facts that render an investigation and/or the continuation of an investigation unnecessary. A Subject who enters into a settlement under the undisputed facts settlement process may, at the sole discretion of the Central Bank, and subject to the timing of the settlement, be offered a potential discount to any monetary penalty proposed up to a maximum of 30% under the settlement scheme. Sanctions imposed by way of the undisputed facts settlement process will be subject to confirmation by the High Court.
- High Court Confirmation Application: As soon as practicable after such a settlement process has been concluded, the Central Bank will apply to the High Court for confirmation of the sanction imposed. The High Court will confirm the decision to impose a sanction unless it is satisfied that any sanction imposed is manifestly disproportionate. If the High Court does not confirm a sanction agreed as part of a settlement agreement concluded under the Undisputed Facts Settlement Process, it will remit the matter for reconsideration by the Central Bank and the Subject along with any recommendation the High Court has in respect of the matters to be reconsidered.
- This is the first enforcement outcome in the crypto sector.
- Settlement Notice (PDF 543.78KB).
- “Coinbase Group” refers to Coinbase Global, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Coinbase Europe Limited.