Coinbase fined €21.46 million for anti-money laundering failures in Ireland
More than €176 billion in transactions went unmonitored due to system faults.
The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Europe €21.46 million for serious failures in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing transaction monitoring. The breaches occurred between April 2021 and March 2025 and involved widespread faults in the firm’s transaction monitoring system.
Over 30 million transactions, worth more than €176 billion, were left unmonitored for a year, representing nearly one-third of all Coinbase Europe activity during that period. After retrospective checks it revealed links to crimes including fraud, drug trafficking and ransomware.
The Irish regulator said Coinbase failed to implement adequate controls and internal procedures. It also criticised the delayed remediation of system faults and emphasised the importance of real-time monitoring to help law enforcement detect and disrupt criminal activity.
Coinbase accepted the findings and settled the case under Ireland’s Administrative Sanctions Procedure, receiving a 30% discount on the original penalty. The enforcement marks the Central Bank’s first action against a crypto asset provider and highlights the sector’s growing regulatory scrutiny in Europe.
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