By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE Dutch National Bank (DNB) has fined cryptocurrency exchange OKX €2.25 million ($2.6 million) for offering services in the Netherlands without approval.
The DNB said OKX’s parent company, Aux Cayes Fintech Co, traded between July 2023 to August 2024 without registering with the watchdog.
“The fine was imposed because Aux Cayes offered crypto services in the Netherlands without the legally required registration with DNB,” the DNB said. “[This] is against the law.”
It added: “Without the registration requirement, it is less easy to monitor whether the risk of criminal money flows is adequately addressed.”
“Among other factors, this meant that Aux Cayes was unable to report unusual transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands during the period of non-compliance.”
The DNB added that OKX has since “ended the non-compliance”.
As well as OKX, the DNB has punished other major exchanges for similar failures. Crypto.com paid €2.85 million, and Kraken paid €4 million for similar issues.
The bank said it will not tolerate operations without approval. It also warned other platforms against bypassing supervision.
OKX fined in Netherlands is latest regulatory issue
“This fine relates to a legacy registration matter,” OKX said in a statement. “[It] has long since been remediated. [There is] no impact on customers.”
The company said the DNB issued the “lowest fine ever against a major exchange”. It said the penalty was “reduced in recognition of the steps we took”.
“We’re pleased to have resolved this matter. [We] remain focused on building compliant and secure services.”
The penalty in the Netherlands is the latest in a string of regulatory issues for OKX.
In April, Malta fined its European arm €1.1 million for AML breaches.
While in February, OKX agreed to a $504 million settlement in the U.S. It came after the firm admitted it had operated as an unlicensed money transmitter and processed $5 billion in suspicious transactions. The settlement requires OKX to work under strict oversight and hire an independent compliance consultant until 2027.
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