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Irish Regulator Fines Coinbase Europe 21.5 Million Euros Over Monitoring Failures
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 6, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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Coinbase Europe was fined €21.5M by Ireland's central bank for transaction monitoring failures, impacting over 30 million transactions and raising concerns about criminal activities.
Coinbase Europe Fined €21.5 Million for Transaction Monitoring Lapses
Overview of Coinbase Europe's Regulatory Fine
DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland's central bank fined an Irish subsidiary of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global 21.5 million euros ($25 million) on Thursday for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist transaction monitoring obligations.
Details of the Monitoring Failures
The Irish regulator said the fine related to faults in the configuration of Coinbase Europe's transaction monitoring system, which resulted in more than 30 million transactions worth over 176 billion euros not being properly monitored over a 12-month period.
Response and Remedial Actions by Coinbase
It added that it took Coinbase almost three years to fully complete the monitoring of the affected transactions, leading to the reporting of 2,708 suspicious transactions to the authorities for further analysis and potential investigation.
Implications for the Cryptocurrency Industry
The transactions contained suspicions associated with serious criminal activities including money laundering, fraud, drug trafficking, cyber attacks and child sexual exploitation, the central bank said.
COINBASE SAYS IT INADVERTENTLY MADE CODING ERRORS
Coinbase Europe provides crypto asset and wallet services to customers globally to facilitate their use of the Coinbase Group’s trading platform to buy and sell crypto assets, the central bank said.
Coinbase said in a statement that it inadvertently made three coding errors in its transaction monitoring system that caused five of the 21 scenarios which look for certain red flags to not fully screen all transactions in 2021 and 2022.
It said it fixed the coding errors within two to three weeks of detecting them. As part of the settlement, Coinbase and the central bank cannot say that the suspicious transactions cumulatively valued at 13 million euros actually resulted in criminal activity, it said.
Coinbase added that it has taken steps to prevent the types of errors from happening again, including enhancing its testing and monitoring.
The fine was reduced from 30.7 million euros by way of a settlement discount and based on Coinbase Europe's average annual revenue of 417 million euros for the period.
"The failure of such a system within any financial institution creates an opportunity for criminals to evade detection – and criminals will take that opportunity," Irish Central Bank Deputy Governor Colm Kincaid said in a statement.
"Crypto has particular technological features which, together with its anonymity-enhancing capabilities and cross-border nature, makes it especially attractive to criminals looking to move their funds."
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Padraic Halpin and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Key Takeaways
- •Coinbase Europe fined €21.5 million by Irish central bank.
- •Faults in transaction monitoring affected 30 million transactions.
- •Coinbase took nearly three years to address the issue.
- •Suspicious transactions linked to serious criminal activities.
- •Fine reduced from €30.7 million through settlement.
Frequently Asked Questions about Irish regulator fines Coinbase Europe 21.5 million euros over monitoring failures
1What is anti-money laundering?
Anti-money laundering (AML) refers to laws and regulations aimed at preventing the process of making illegally obtained money appear legitimate.
2What is a cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on a technology called blockchain.
3What is transaction monitoring?
Transaction monitoring is the process of reviewing financial transactions to detect suspicious activities that may indicate money laundering or fraud.
4What is a suspicious transaction?
A suspicious transaction is any financial activity that raises red flags or concerns about potential illegal activities, such as money laundering.
5What is a regulatory fine?
A regulatory fine is a monetary penalty imposed by a regulatory authority on an entity for violating laws or regulations.
