Ireland’s central bank has fined Coinbase Ireland €3.25 million (about $3.6 million) over failures in how the crypto exchange safeguarded customer funds and oversaw outsourced services. The penalty was announced on Thursday, October 22.
The Central Bank of Ireland said Coinbase Ireland failed to establish an adequate outsourcing governance framework and relied excessively on its U.S.-based parent. Safeguarding and outsourcing rules exist to protect customer funds: companies must keep safeguarding accounts adequately funded and monitored, and report material changes to the regulator. Coinbase disclosed that coding errors left a safeguarding account underfunded by an average of 0.54% during 2023 and the first half of 2024.
Coinbase Office (Credits: CoinDesk)
What the Coinbase Ireland fine says about fund safeguarding
The case had its roots in the 2023 near-collapse of Silvergate bank, when Coinbase instructed 30 customers to deposit funds into an alternate account at another U.S. bank. The regulator’s core finding is about controls: relying on a parent company without proper governance does not satisfy Ireland’s safeguarding obligations. Coinbase said no customers lost money or were unable to access their funds.
A second big Irish penalty for Coinbase
This is not the first Irish enforcement action against the exchange. The €3.25 million penalty follows a €21.4 million fine imposed on Coinbase Europe in 2025 for anti-money laundering failures. The back-to-back fines underscore how seriously European regulators are taking compliance at crypto firms — safeguarding and AML controls are now table stakes, and Ireland is making the enforcement visible.
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Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.