The leading
digital assets exchange Coinbase has been slapped with a hefty $3.3 fine by the
Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). A fine of an identical amount
was paid a few months earlier by rival platform Binance.
According
to the DNB’s press release, the fine was imposed due to the unauthorized crypto
activities of the Coinbase exchange in the past, from November 2020 until at
least 24 August 2022.
The
Coinbase European subsidiary, Coinbase Europe Limited, had been operating
unregistered in the Netherlands since at least November 2020. Earlier in May of
the same year, the DNB imposed a registration requirement on all cryptocurrency
service providers due to the high risk of money laundering and terrorist
financing.
The base
fine for a violation committed by Coinbase is €2 million but was increased due
to the fact that Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the
world and has a large number of consumers in the Netherlands.
“In
addition, Coinbase has enjoyed a competitive advantage in that it has not paid
any supervisory fees to DNB or incurred other costs in connection with DNB’s
regular supervision activities. A further important reason for the increased
fine is that the non-compliance persisted over a prolonged period,” DNB
stated.
The
decision to impose the fine was made on 18 January, but the official
announcement was not made to the media until 26 January.
