The Dutch central bank, Netherlands Bank (DNB), has fined Crypto.com for operating without registration for more than two years. The fine was imposed in October but announced on March 13th. It is unclear why this measure was not announced at the time or why it has been announced now.
On October 23, DNB awarded Foris DAX MT, commercially known as Crypto.com, a €2.85 million (then €300 A fine of $1,000,000 was imposed. May 21, 2020 is the date the DBN introduced the registration requirement.
Crypto service providers must be registered under the Dutch Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act. DNB said the basic fine was 2 million euros, but it was increased to take into account the seriousness of the violation and the degree of responsibility.
Crypto.com enjoyed an advantage over its competitors by not paying oversight or compliance fees. Crypto.com had a “significant number” of customers during that period and “DAX MT was not registered and therefore could not report unusual transactions to the Dutch Financial Intelligence Authority during the non-compliance period”.
Crypto.com appealed DNB's decision on October 9th.
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Crypto.com received registration in the Netherlands in July 2023. A DNB spokesperson told Cointelegraph at the time that Dutch users were legally allowed to use the exchange, even though it operated illegally. A spokesperson for the exchange told Cointelegraph in a March 13 statement:
“This fine relates to a past remedied incident and does not affect our ongoing market operations or services. […] We have already addressed the concerns raised in a timely and transparent manner. ”
DNB established registration requirements for cryptographic service providers in April 2022. After receiving a warning from DNB in August 2021, Binance was fined 3.3 million euros ($3.5 million at the time) for operating without registration. Binance has announced that it will cease operations in the Netherlands in June 2022 due to failed registration attempts.
There are currently 41 registered cryptocurrency service providers in the Netherlands.
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