The Central Bank of the Netherlands (DNB) fined the cryptocurrency exchange OKX $2.6 million for unregistered activities that continued from July 2023 to August 2024.
The lack of a license to offer cryptocurrency trading services without registration grossly violates the anti-money laundering (AML) rules, mandatory for all participants in the Dutch crypto market since 2020, said DNB. OKX unjustly enjoyed a competitive advantage over companies registered with DNB, as it did not pay the mandatory fees to the central bank and refused to incur costs to comply with local authorities' requirements, officials announced. The fine of $2.6 million was the minimum amount among all similar penalties imposed on major trading platforms operating in the Netherlands. OKX has already corrected the situation and transferred all Dutch users to its European platform, licensed under the existing EU rules of Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA).
