Coinbase Europe Fined €21.5M Over Major Transaction Monitoring Failures

In Brief

• Coinbase Europe failed to monitor over 30 million transactions worth €176B during system faults
• Central Bank ruled the failures risked exposure to serious financial crime and illicit activity
• Coinbase has corrected system errors and enhanced monitoring controls to prevent future lapses

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Europe €21.5 million for failing to meet anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules. The regulator determined that the company did not properly monitor a significant portion of its customer transactions across a multi-year period.

The breaches occurred between April 2021 and March 2025 due to faults in Coinbase Europe’s transaction monitoring system. These faults resulted in more than 30 million transactions not being fully reviewed, representing about 31% of all processed transactions during the affected time.

The value of the unmonitored transactions exceeded €176 billion and involved potential risks linked to serious criminal activity. The regulator stated that Coinbase Europe did not submit required suspicious transaction reports to the national Financial Intelligence Unit and Revenue in a timely manner.

The company later re-screened the affected transactions and submitted 2,708 suspicious transaction reports following its review. This additional assessment required nearly three years to complete because of the volume and complexity of the affected data.

Coinbase Europe said the issue stemmed from three coding errors in its Transaction Monitoring System. These errors prevented several monitoring scenarios from properly analyzing crypto addresses that contained special characters.

Regulator Highlights Risk and Need for Stronger Controls

Although the coding issues were corrected within weeks, Coinbase Europe needed to reprocess and evaluate the previously unmonitored data. The company reviewed approximately 185,000 transactions further after re-screening and identified cases requiring more detailed compliance examination.

The Central Bank stressed that crypto platforms face heightened risks because of the speed and anonymity of blockchain transactions. It emphasized that regulated firms must ensure continuous monitoring to prevent misuse for money laundering or terrorist financing.

Coinbase Europe stated that it has strengthened internal testing and monitoring controls to prevent similar errors. It also reaffirmed its commitment to improving compliance oversight and maintaining operational transparency.

Source: Yahoo

Coinbase (COIN) closed at $319.30, rising 3.90% as the stock held strong buying interest. Pre‑market trading showed a slight decline to $318.01, reflecting mild profit‑taking after recent gains.