The Dutch Central Bank has issued a fine of €3,325,000 (over $3.6 million) to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for providing services without the registration required. The platform for trading, which has until March to object to the decision, is currently considering an appeal against it.
Dutch Financial Authority Penalizes Coinbase for Working Without Consent
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) imposed an administrative fine of €3,325,000 (over $3.6 million) on Coinbase Europe Limited on Jan. 18, 2023. An announcement outlined the penalty for the exchange in offering crypto services in the Netherlands in the past days without registering with the central bank.
According to the regulator, this is deemed to be a breach of Dutch regulations, as companies that wish to provide cryptocurrency-related services are required to register with the DNB under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing Act.
The financial authority also noted that the minimum amount for this type of fines is 2,000,000 euros. They also mentioned that the sum for Coinbase has increased “due to the seriousness and degree of culpability of the breach.”
“In increasing the fine, DNB took into account the fact that Coinbase is one of the largest crypto service providers in the world. Additionally, Coinbase has a large number of customers in the Netherlands who use its crypto services,” The bank noted that the exchange had not been subject to any monitoring fees.
The Dutch authority also noted that the central bank Coinbase operated without registration during a lengthy period between mid- and late-November 2020 and the end August 2022, stating that it considers this to be a serious breach.
Furthermore, the DNB also reduced the fine by 5% because it said that Coinbase had always intended to obtain registration in the Netherlands by September 22 of the last year. A registration requirement was introduced for crypto service providers in May 2020.
The international exchange couldn’t report unusual transactions due to lack of registration with the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit The institution argued that these transfers could have gone unnoticed by the investigating authorities during the mentioned period.
Coinbase has till March 2, 2023 to appeal the fine. Reuters reported that the exchange stated that it disagreed with DNB’s decision. “This does not include criticism of our actual services.” The cryptocurrency firm is currently looking at an appeal.
In July 2022, De Nederlandsche Bank took similar measures against Binance. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was also fined the same amount in euros for providing services within cryptocurrency in the Netherlands without the registration required.
Would you like to know what the central bank will do to ensure other crypto service providers are compliant? Please leave a comment below.
