De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands, announced Thursday that it had imposed a $3.6 million fine on the publicly-traded crypto exchange Coinbase over the violation of certain financial laws.
The fine was handed to the crypto exchange on January 18th, 2023.
Coinbase to Pay $3.6M Fine
One of the DNB’s financial laws mandates crypto servicing companies to “register with DNB under the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act.” The central bank now alleges that Coinbase has failed to uphold this law.
The financial agency added that the exchange had offered its services to many Dutch customers. According to the report, Coinbase has been non-compliant with the regulation from November 15th, 2020, to August 24th, 2022.
Since Coinbase is a crypto exchange offering services globally, the DNB increased the imposed fine. Nonetheless, it reduced the fine by 5%, citing that Coinbase had secured regulatory approval in the country. The approval was revealed on September 22nd, 2022.
The central bank further stated that Coinbase has until March 2nd, 2023, to dispute the fine in court.
DNB’s History With Crypto Exchanges
This is not the first time the Netherlands central bank has been at odds with a crypto exchange. In December, the DNB issued a warning notice to the crypto exchange, KuCoin. The financial authority claimed KuCoin offered services to Dutch customers without registering as a crypto service provider.
If KuCoin fails to abide by the warning, the DNB may impose a fine on the company.
In July, the DNB issued the leading crypto exchange Binance a $3.3 million fine over the same violations as Coinbase. The bank stated that the exchange offered services to Dutch users from May 2020 to December 2021. Despite being warned in August 2021, Binance allegedly refused to comply and was eventually fined four months later.
Meanwhile, Coinbase recently agreed to a $100 million fine from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). According to the financial agency, the exchange failed to thoroughly conduct the Know Your Customer (KYC) process for customers. The NYDFS had earlier signaled a compliance breach of Coinbase in 2020.
