The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Europe Limited €21.46 million for major anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) failures. It is the first time the regulator has taken enforcement action against a crypto firm, and it highlights a growing focus on risk and accountability across the sector.
The breaches relate to transaction monitoring failures under Ireland’s Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010. Coinbase Europe, part of the global Coinbase Group, offers crypto asset and wallet services, allowing customers to trade digital assets on its platform.
System Failures Affected €176 Billion in Transactions
According to the Central Bank, Coinbase Europe failed to properly monitor more than 30 million transactions (worth over €176 billion) during a 12-month period. The issue stemmed from configuration faults in its monitoring system. These transactions represented around 31% of all activity during the period in question.
It took the firm nearly three years to review the missed transactions. As a result, Coinbase submitted 2,708 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) late to the Financial Intelligence Unit. These STRs related to suspected criminal activity including money laundering, fraud, drug trafficking, ransomware and child sexual exploitation.
The Central Bank stressed that timely monitoring and reporting are essential to Ireland’s AML framework. When suspicious activity is not detected or reported quickly, law enforcement agencies can lose critical opportunities to identify and stop criminal networks.
Breaches and Sanctions
Coinbase Europe admitted to several breaches, including failure to:
- Monitor 30,442,437 transactions
- Maintain adequate internal policies, controls and procedures
- Conduct additional monitoring of nearly 185,000 transactions
The Central Bank decided that a reprimand and a penalty of €30.66 million were appropriate. Under its settlement scheme, the regulator applied a 30% discount, bringing the final fine to €21.46 million. The settlement was reached on 5 November 2025 and must now be confirmed by the High Court.
“Criminals Will Take That Opportunity”
Colm Kincaid, Deputy Governor for Consumer and Investor Protection, said the failings created clear opportunities for criminals to avoid detection.
“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,” he said. “The failure of such a system within any financial institution creates an opportunity for criminals to evade detection – and criminals will take that opportunity.”
Kincaid also noted that crypto’s “anonymity-enhancing capabilities and cross-border nature” make the sector particularly appealing to criminals. This makes strong monitoring controls even more important for firms offering crypto services.
A New Era of Enforcement and Accountability
This case represents the Central Bank’s 162nd enforcement outcome, bringing total fines to more than €428 million. It is also the first to use the regulator’s new undisputed facts settlement process, introduced under the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Act 2023. The process allows faster settlements where the facts are agreed and offers potential discounts of up to 30%. All sanctions under this process require High Court approval.
The action against Coinbase Europe shows that the Central Bank is increasing its scrutiny of AML compliance in the crypto sector. Regulators across Europe are sending a consistent message: virtual asset service providers will be held to the same standards as traditional financial institutions.
Once confirmed by the High Court, the sanction will set an important precedent for how crypto firms are supervised under Ireland’s AML regime.
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