Coinbase Europe Slapped with €21.5M Fine by Irish Central Bank Over Compliance Lapses
Another day, another crypto exchange learning the hard way that regulators don't mess around.
The Irish Central Bank just dropped a €21.5 million hammer on Coinbase Europe for failing to meet anti-money laundering requirements—proving even the big players can't afford compliance shortcuts.
Guess those 'self-regulation' fantasies didn't age well.
CBEL filed suspicious transaction reports on transactions worth $15 million
Coinbase Europe is part of the Coinbase Group. It provides crypto asset and wallet services to customers globally, facilitating their use of the Coinbase Group’s trading platform to buy and sell crypto assets.
As a crypto asset service provider, Coinbase Europe is required to continuously monitor customer transactions.
To that end, Coinbase explained that it created TMS “scenarios,” which look for specific red flags or transaction patterns that may be suspicious. These instances trigger alerts, which a team of compliance professionals investigates further. CBEL used 21 TMS scenarios to monitor its clients’ transactions.
However, Coinbase made three coding errors. As a result, five of the 21 TMS situations did not fully verify all transactions within the two-year period. The situations ignored crypto addresses that were divided by special characters. The company stated that it identified the issue through internal testing, resolved it within weeks, and subsequently reviewed all affected transactions.
Coinbase Europe eventually filed around 2,700 suspicious transaction reports on transactions totaling roughly $15 million, out of the 185,000 transactions flagged during the review period. The company stated that these filings do not indicate wrongdoing but are required by Irish Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.
Registered companies, such as CBEL, are obligated to file STRs if they suspect that a party to the transaction is involved in money laundering or other illegal activities. As part of this settlement, the CBI and CBEL cannot claim that the transactions in these 2,700 reports resulted in illegal activity.
Coinbase said it has subsequently improved testing and oversight of its Transaction Monitoring System to stop such mistakes from happening.
“Coinbase recognizes the importance of effective AML procedures and takes our obligations under AML legislation and regulatory guidance very seriously,” the company said.
Coinbase’s efforts to shape how stablecoins regulations are applied
In the US, Coinbase is trying to shape how stablecoins regulations are applied. The exchange called on the US Treasury Department to ensure its upcoming rules for the GENIUS Act remain faithful to Congress’s original intent.
We submitted @coinbase's response to @USTreasury's request for comments on the implementation of the GENIUS Act. Our message is simple: GENIUS is landmark legislation designed to make the US the undisputed global leader in crypto and stablecoins. To make that happen, the… pic.twitter.com/XLyq15u0Ov
— Faryar Shirzad 🛡️ (@faryarshirzad) November 5, 2025
The exchange warned that excessive regulation could stifle innovation and undermine US leadership in crypto. In a detailed response to the Treasury, the exchange urged regulators to avoid expanding the law’s scope beyond what the statute requires.
“Treating third‐party rewards or loyalty programs as prohibited ‘interest’ WOULD rewrite Congress’s carefully drawn lines and conflict with the statute’s purpose,” Coinbase said.
The exchange also proposed that payment stablecoins be recognized as cash equivalents for tax and accounting purposes.
Coinbase reported $1.9 billion in Q3 revenue on Thursday. They have beaten Wall Street estimates and recorded a 58% year-over-year increase. As reported by Cryptopolitan, the company’s earnings for the three months ending September 30 showed a 26% jump compared to the previous quarter.
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