Coinbase Europe Fined €21.5M by Irish Bank Over Transaction Lapses
- Coinbase was fined €21.5M by the Irish regulator for major AML and CTF monitoring failures.
- Over €176B in unmonitored transactions linked to potential criminal financial activity.
- The first major crypto penalty in Ireland sets tougher compliance standards across Europe.
Coinbase Europe has been fined 21.5 million euros by the Central Bank of Ireland because it did not comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) requirements. The regulator discovered that Coinbase had not overseen more than 30 million transactions, valued at over €176 billion, between April 2021 and March 2025.
The fine was the first significant enforcement measure by the Central Bank in the crypto industry. It points to the increasing regulatory pressure by Europe on digital asset companies to improve the transaction-tracking platform and avert financial crimes. Regulators indicated that the lapses that Coinbase had made revealed critical vulnerabilities in its compliance system.
Coinbase Monitoring Errors Created Serious AML Compliance Risks
According to the investigators, the monitoring system at Coinbase was wrongly configured, which caused significant loopholes in detecting suspicious transactions. Consequently, less than 69% of the company’s total transaction volume was monitored during the review period. Regulators claimed that the unregulated flows could be associated with money laundering, drug trafficking, cyberattacks, and child abuse.
Coinbase has spent almost three years auditing the impacted transactions. After reviewing it, it submitted more than 2,700 suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit. The authorities claimed that these delays posed a significant danger because they could allow criminal money to flow untraced through the system.
The company blamed the failure on three coding errors, which led to five out of twenty-one risk indicators ceasing operations between 2021 and 2022. Coinbase asserted that they resolved the software bugs within several weeks and implemented more rigorous system testing and monitoring processes to avoid such issues going forward.
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Source: RTE
Regulators Warn Crypto Firms of Heavy Penalties for Non-Compliance
The Central Bank had proposed a fine of €30.7 million, but that was cut by 30% because Coinbase had paid the fine earlier than required and assisted in investigations. The new figure was consistent with the current annual revenue of the company, as attested by regulators.
Deputy Governor Colm Kincaid claimed that the case highlights the importance of strong controls in the cryptocurrency market. He cautioned that the globality and anonymity of the digital currencies were alluring in the crime of misuse. He says that market integrity requires strong monitoring.
Coinbase publicly accepted those findings and acknowledged that the company has taken additional compliance steps. The ruling provides a precedent in regulating crypto in Europe and sends a straight forward message that the inability to adhere to the regulations will lead to severe financial and reputational consequences against a company.
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