Crypto exchange Coinbase has agreed to settle with the Central Bank of Ireland and pay a hefty fine over failures in its anti-money laundering transaction monitoring systems. “Coinbase Europe Limited (CBEL) has cooperated with the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) to reach a settlement regarding coding errors that affected transaction monitoring in 2021 and 2022,” the crypto exchange wrote in an Nov. 6 announcement . Coinbase will have to pay a fine of €21.5 million, with the settlement reached under the regulator’s “Administrative Sanctions Procedure” through an “undisputed facts” process that avoided a protracted legal battle. According to regulators, Coinbase failed to properly monitor over 30 million transactions during a 12-month window, valued at more than €176 billion. Coinbase failed to block over 2.7k suspicious transactions They said the lapses arose from “significant failures” in how the company configured its automated systems, which resulted in a breakdown that “created an opportunity for criminals to evade detection.” As such, it was described as a serious compliance lapse that weakened Ireland’s broader anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism framework. Notably, Coinbase took nearly three years to complete a retrospective review of those unmonitored transactions , and that led to 2,708 suspicious transaction reports being filed with the Irish Financial Intelligence Unit, the bank noted in a separate announcement released the same day. Regulators added that these STRs contained red flags “associated with serious criminal activities including: money laundering; fraud or scams; drug trafficking; cyber-attacks including malware or ransomware; and child sexual exploitation.” “The monitoring of transactions in real time and the filing of STRs without delay is a cornerstone of the effectiveness and efficiency of the AML/CFT regulatory regime. Failure to do so can seriously hinder how the regulatory and criminal justice system can detect, report, disrupt, investigate and prosecute criminality,” they added. Estimates in the report state that nearly 30.4 million transactions slipped through the cracks due to Coinbase’s failure to properly implement its transaction monitoring scenarios. Coinbase says it was a coding mishap Coinbase has accepted the regulator’s conclusion that it did not have adequate internal policies, procedures, and controls in place to manage its AML and counter-terrorist financing obligations during that period. Coinbase characterised its mistake as the result of a “coding error” that prevented five of its 21 automated transaction monitoring scenarios from fully screening customer activity in 2021 and 2022. While acknowledging the shortcomings, Coinbase clarified that it had self-identified the issue, swiftly fixed the faulty code, and re-screened all relevant transactions. “Registered companies like CBEL are required to file STRs if they suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect a party to the transaction is engaged in money laundering or other illicit activity. As part of this settlement, the CBI and CBEL cannot say that the transactions in these 2,700 reports actually resulted in criminal activity,” it added. Nevertheless, there’s still a silver lining for Coinbase as it has avoided drawn-out legal proceedings and also managed to secure a 30% discount on the original penalty, which was initially set at €30.6 million. Market expansion continues The settlement comes just as Coinbase reported a strong quarter , posting $1.9 billion in revenue for Q3 2025, up 25% from the previous three-month period. The company is also looking to enter the stablecoin market and is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire BVNK, a London-based payments startup, in a deal that could be valued between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion. The post Coinbase fined €21.5M by Irish regulator over AML monitoring lapses appeared first on Invezz
