Coinbase UK subsidiary fined $4.5M for insufficient money laundering controls

The FCA claims that CBPL provided e-money services to roughly 13,000 “high-risk” customers

article-image

Coinbase and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks

share

CB Payments Limited (CBPL), a subsidiary business under the Coinbase Group, has been fined $4.5 million by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for inadequate anti-money laundering controls.

CBPL is a regulated electronic money institution (EMI) that serves as a gateway for UK customers to trade crypto assets between entities in Coinbase Group.

In late 2020, it agreed to improve its anti-money laundering controls and not accept high-risk customers in the UK after the FCA issued a warning.

However, the financial watchdog claims that CBPL subsequently provided e-money services to roughly 13,000 “high-risk” customers — receiving about $24.9 million from 31% of these customers — in a timespan of two years. 

Read more: FCA issued 450 warnings to crypto firms in the final months of 2023

“CBPL’s controls had significant weaknesses and the FCA told it so, which is why the requirements were needed. CPBL, however, repeatedly breached those requirements,” Therese Chambers, FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said.

Coinbase pushed back in a blog post, claiming that its business had “…unintentionally onboarded some customers between Oct. 30, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2023, (representing 0.34% of customers on-boarded) who were classified as high-risk.”

This marks the first time the FCA has taken an enforcement action against a crypto-related business under the 2011 Electronic Money Regulations. The regulation is generally designed to regulate smaller companies in the business of digital payment services.

Because CBPL agreed to “resolve the matter,” the FCA noted that the firm qualified for a 30% discount on its fine.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, has emerged as a leader in onchain RWAs, with ~$17.5B publicly tokenized. The platform’s ecosystem volume is growing ~40% YoY as it expands beyond HELOCs into student loans, DSCR loans, unsecured loans, bankruptcy claims, and more. Operationally, Figure cuts average loan production cost by ~93% and compresses median funding time from ~42 days to ~10, creating a durable speed-and-cost advantage.

article-image

The Ethereum co-founder suggested LINEA holders would be eligible for other airdrops in cryptic tweet

article-image

The layer-2’s biggest release yet brings benefits — but a post-upgrade outage caused a chain reorg

article-image

Crypto is shifting into risk-on mode — pump.fun dominates meme activity, while Lido leans on treasury maneuvers

article-image

If the president breaks the Fed, he’ll own the budget problems

article-image

Combining Franklin Templeton’s tokenization expertise with Binance’s trading infrastructure could speed crypto adoption, companies say

article-image

The firm’s upcoming filing comes as competition heats up over the USDH stablecoin