OKX fined $1.2 million by Malta for breaching anti-money laundering regulations
The FIU's notice stated that the company should have assessed the nature of the risks associated with its services.
Author: Camomile Shumba | Edited by: Aoyon Ashraf Updated: Apr 4, 2025 8:48 PM Published: Apr 4, 2025 1:24 AM
What you need to know:
- OKX Europe has been fined €1.05 million ($1.2 million) by Malta's financial regulator for breaching local anti-money laundering regulations.
- The organization has stated its intention to comply with international standards.
OKX Europe, also known as OKCoin Europe, a subsidiary of cryptocurrency exchange OKX, was fined €1.05 million ($1.2 million) by Malta's financial regulator on Thursday for failing to comply with the country's anti-money laundering rules.
The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) noted that the company had failed to assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with its products and had breached a number of provisions of national legislation on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Regulatory compliance is a priority for us and we continue to strive to meet and exceed international regulatory standards,” OKX said in a statement.
The company also reported that it had addressed the deficiencies identified in its compliance system following an inspection carried out by the body in 2023. In the new notice, FIAU also recognised the company for the significant achievements made over the past 18 months.
Earlier this year, OKX received the coveted Malta Markets in Cryptocurrency (MiCA) license, which will allow it to provide cryptocurrency services throughout the European Union.
“The company had to assess the nature of the risks associated with the services it offered,” the agency said in a statement.
The FIAU stated that the exchange is required to assess the risks associated with the use of stablecoins, mixers that hide the origin of transactions, privacy coins, tokens created to ensure anonymity, and tokens on decentralized exchanges.
OKX recently temporarily suspended its decentralized exchange aggregator following reports that European regulators are investigating how it was used to launder money obtained from the recent hack of the Bybit exchange.
Bloomberg was the first to report this situation.
