The Central Bank of Ireland has imposed a €3.25 million ($3.65 million) penalty on Coinbase Ireland Limited after finding breaches of customer-fund safeguarding, outsourcing oversight and internal control rules. The enforcement action, announced on 22 October 2026, covers breaches between 1 November 2020 and 19 August 2025.
According to the regulator, Coinbase Ireland's designated safeguarding accounts were underfunded for at least 18 months. Daily safeguarding shortfalls reached €3.4 million in 2023 and €5.2 million in 2024, exposing customers to potential losses if the electronic money institution had become insolvent. The average shortfall represented 0.54% of safeguarding obligations, which averaged €323 million in 2023 and €470 million in 2024.
Coinbase Ireland admitted the regulatory breaches and agreed to a reprimand and a €3,252,618 fine, reduced from €4,646,597 through a 30% settlement discount. The sanctions remain subject to confirmation by Ireland's High Court. Coinbase said it had self-reported the issues and that no customers suffered financial losses or lost access to their funds.
The regulator identified material errors in the systems used to calculate daily safeguarding obligations and rebalance customer funds beginning in July 2022. Coinbase Ireland also failed to maintain proper segregation of customer funds for more than four years, allowing customer funds to be mixed with funds belonging to customers of other Coinbase entities.
In addition, the Central Bank found excessive reliance on a US-based Coinbase Group company for critical safeguarding functions without sufficient local expertise and oversight. Despite supervisory warnings in 2022 and 2023, outsourcing governance weaknesses remained largely unchanged until December 2024, when Coinbase Ireland appointed an individual directly responsible for safeguarding. Approximately 30 institutional clients were also redirected to a Coinbase Inc. bank account between March 2023 and October 2024, while some customers who migrated from Coinbase UK had funds deposited into the UK entity's safeguarding account until 19 August 2025.
Central Bank Director of Enforcement Karen O'Leary said the regulator had "no tolerance for weaknesses in safeguarding arrangements." The latest penalty follows a separate €21.46 million fine imposed on Coinbase Europe Limited in November 2025 for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing monitoring failures. The Irish High Court confirmed that earlier sanction in January 2026.
