Ireland Fines Coinbase $25 Million for Money Laundering Monitoring Failures

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Europe Limited almost $25 million after finding that the cryptocurrency exchange failed to properly monitor billions of dollars’ worth of transactions that might have involved criminal activity.

The regulator said Coinbase’s systems missed checks on more than 30 million transactions, worth around $202 billion, between 2021 and 2022. That figure accounts for roughly one-third of Coinbase’s total European activity during those years.

The missed reviews were traced to a coding error in Coinbase’s automated compliance software. Because of the glitch, many transactions that should have been screened for suspicious behavior were never analyzed.

After discovering the fault, Coinbase ran a retrospective review and reported 2,708 transactions—worth about $15 million—to Ireland’s Financial Intelligence Unit. Those cases were flagged as potentially tied to drug trafficking, child exploitation, or money-laundering activity.

A spokesperson for the Central Bank said the lapse exposed major weaknesses in Coinbase’s internal controls. “Financial institutions are expected to detect and report suspicious movements of money quickly and accurately,” the regulator said.

Colm Kincaid, the Central Bank’s deputy governor for consumer and investor protection, warned that the nature of cryptocurrencies makes them particularly attractive to criminals.

“Crypto’s speed, borderless design, and privacy features appeal to those moving illicit funds,” Kincaid said. “Firms in this sector must apply the same strict standards as traditional banks.”

Coinbase said the problem occurred when its monitoring system was first configured and insisted it was not deliberate. The company has since corrected the error, reported the overdue transactions, and removed accounts linked to the suspicious activity. Both Coinbase and the Central Bank said none of the transactions reviewed have yet been confirmed as criminal.

The fine still requires formal approval from Ireland’s High Court, which must sign off on large financial penalties before they can be enforced. Coinbase said it has worked closely with authorities throughout the investigation and strengthened its compliance systems to prevent a repeat failure.

The case is one of the most significant crypto-related enforcement actions in Europe to date. Regulators across the EU are tightening supervision of digital-asset platforms ahead of new rules under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)framework, which will introduce uniform compliance standards across member states from 2025.

Ireland has become a European hub for several major exchanges because of its access to EU markets and English-language regulatory environment. The Central Bank’s decision shows that, even as Ireland courts fintech investment, it expects crypto firms to meet the same anti-money-laundering standards as established financial institutions.

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