Coinbase Reaches $100 Million Settlement With New York Regulators (nytimes.com) 13
Coinbase, a publicly traded cryptocurrency trading exchange based in the United States, agreed to pay a $50 million fine after financial regulators found that it let customers open accounts without conducting sufficient background checks, in violation of anti-money-laundering laws. From a report: The settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services, announced Wednesday, will also require Coinbase to invest $50 million to bolster its compliance program, which is supposed to prevent drug traffickers, sellers of child pornography and other potential lawbreakers from opening accounts with the exchange.
It's the latest hit to the once-highflying global cryptocurrency trading business. Several cryptocurrency firms have filed for bankruptcy over the past year -- most notably FTX, which was the world's second-largest crypto exchange before it collapsed in November. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder, and other top FTX executives now face federal criminal charges. The compliance problems at Coinbase were first detected during a routine examination in 2020 after the exchange secured a license to operate in New York in 2017, regulators said. They found problems with the exchange's anti-money-laundering controls going as far back as 2018.
It's the latest hit to the once-highflying global cryptocurrency trading business. Several cryptocurrency firms have filed for bankruptcy over the past year -- most notably FTX, which was the world's second-largest crypto exchange before it collapsed in November. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder, and other top FTX executives now face federal criminal charges. The compliance problems at Coinbase were first detected during a routine examination in 2020 after the exchange secured a license to operate in New York in 2017, regulators said. They found problems with the exchange's anti-money-laundering controls going as far back as 2018.
$100 million? or $50 million? (Score:2)
$100 million (per the headline)? or $50 million (per the first sentence of the summary)?
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it was 100M and then bitcoin dropped so now it's 50M
Re: $100 million? or $50 million? (Score:2)
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Notice the "also" in the first sentence of the quote.
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Yes.
It's a $50M fine and $50M required spend on actually doing the things they were legally supposed to be doing at the start.
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Yup, Coinbase was a hub of criminal activity, either because they were extremely lax at controls, or because they knew that's where the money was.
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It was 100 million, but when NY tried to convert the bitcoins they paid with, they only got 50m.
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Good luck (Score:2)
The real cost (Score:2)
Killer application (Score:2)
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They'll have to break new ground with other business models. Maybe protection rackets.
Don't forget tax evasion, ransomware (Score:2)
Isn't that Coin Base's killer app? Money laundering? Sure they will still have some speculators, but I'm not sure that is going to be enough going forward.
I'd guess that was their top one, but ransomware and hiring bot farms or other international illegal activity are 2 major sources of headache for me. However, a few crytobros on Slashdot regularly praise crypto for tax evasion. I don't personally see how cryptocurrency has made anyone's life, especially in the USA or other developed nations, better unless you engage in illegal activity.