Cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase has been fined €3.3 million by the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), which is the Dutch Central Bank for operating without a license.
This is in addition to nonpayment of supervisory fees since it commenced operation.
The bank in a notice issued to the exchange said that the firm has been offering its services to customers since mid-November, 2020 and late August 2022, in the Netherlands without approval by the Central Bank.
Initially supposed to be €2 million, the DNB said that the fine was increased “due to the severity and degree of culpability of the non-compliance.”
“In increasing the fine, DNB took into account the fact that Coinbase is one of the largest crypto service providers globally. Moreover, Coinbase has a significant number of customers in the Netherlands that make use of its crypto services,” bitcoin.com quotes the DNB.
The implication of this non-compliance
According to the DNB, the failure of Coinbase to register with the authority as required meant that the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit was not privy to all unscrupulous transactions that might have been facilitated through the firm.
