Irish cenbank fines Coinbase arm $3.6M for oversight, safeguard failures

SummaryIreland’s central bank fined Coinbase Ireland 3.25 million euros ($3.6 million) for alleged failures in safeguarding customer funds and overseeing outsourced services. The regulator said Coinbase Ireland relied excessively on its U. S.-based parent and lacked adequate systems and controls, while Coinbase disclosed that coding errors left a safeguarding account underfunded by an average of 0.54% in 2023 and the first half of 2024. Coinbase said no customers lost money or were unable to access their funds. The penalty follows a 21.4 million-euro Irish fine imposed on Coinbase Europe in 2025 for anti-money laundering failures. Coinbase Ireland was hit with a 3.25 million-euro ($3.6 million) fine from the country’s central bank over alleged breaches of its safeguarding and outsourcing obligations. The Irish division of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global COIN$170.10 failed to establish an adequate outsourcing governance framework, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) said on Thursday. Safeguarding and outsourcing requirements underpin the protection of customer funds.

Oct 20, 2026, 1:02 p.m. EDT5 min readBlockTower Capital founder Ari Paul publicly accused Coinbase of losing roughly $25 million of his firm's assets and concealing hacks totaling more than $1 billion across a dozen institutions. Coinbase flatly denies it, Paul says active litigation prevents him from publishing his evidence, and the industry has spent the weeks since arguing about who is telling the truth. The argument misses the most uncomfortable fact in the story: nobody outside the two parties involved can check. That is a strange place to land for an industry built on an asset designed so that no one would have to take anyone's word for anything. A custodian holding assets for much of the market stands accused of billion-dollar concealment, and the only tools available for evaluating the claim are the accuser's credibility and the custodian's word.

Skip to main contentCrypto NewsOct 20, 2026, 9:35 a.m. EDT2 min readKazakhstan's capital, Astana (Viktor Hesse/Unsplash)SummaryKazakhstan’s AIFC Court barred Coinbase and five other crypto exchanges from offering unlicensed services inside the Astana financial center. The court injunctions apply strictly to users within the AIFC and do not extend across the rest of Kazakhstan. LBank was removed from the order after resolving AFSA concerns, while Apple and Google face potential app-store duties once served. Kazakhstan’s financial regulator secured court orders restricting Coinbase and five other crypto platforms from offering services without authorization in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) said that the injunctions cover BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase and WEEX. The orders prohibit the platforms from offering or marketing unlicensed digital asset services and distributing mobile apps for those services within the center. The restrictions do not amount to a nationwide ban. In a Sept. 15 judgment, Justice Sir Stephen Richards said the injunctions apply only to the AIFC and users located there.

Kazakhstan’s Astana International Financial Centre court (AIFC) has prohibited six platforms from offering digital-asset services without licenses in its jurisdiction and extended access restrictions to app stores. The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) said Tuesday the court issued injunctions after the regulator sued operators of crypto platforms for offering digital-asset services without authorization. The Sept. 15 order named BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase, LBank and WEEX; an amendment three days later removed LBank after its operator blocked access in Kazakhstan. Google and Apple are also covered as app-store operators, with geographic restrictions on access to the remaining platforms, according to the announcement. AFSA said users of unlicensed platforms lack safeguards required of licensed firms, including asset protection, disclosure, complaints handling and dispute resolution. Kazakhstan’s National Bank oversees digital-asset service providers outside the AIFC. Cointelegraph’s requests for comment from BingX, Coinbase and Huobi Global were not immediately answered.

SummaryAuthorities arrested 28 people in Ghana and Nigeria in a crackdown on scam networks linked to cryptocurrency investment fraud. Private-sector partners flagged $11 million in funds that could be frozen, while officials reported cryptocurrency seizures without disclosing their value. Meta removed more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups, while investigators received leads on over 30 suspected scam centers. Authorities in Ghana and Nigeria arrested 28 people in a crackdown on West African scam networks that included cryptocurrency investment fraud, the U. S. Department of Justice said in a statement. The operation also identified 117 trafficking victims in Ghana who were awaiting repatriation to Nigeria, according to the U. K.'s National Crime Agency (NCA), and saw private companies identify more than $11 million in funds that could be frozen. Partners also reported cryptocurrency seizures but did not disclose their value or the assets involved. The $11 million represents funds flagged for a possible freeze, not confirmed recoveries.

Oct 16, 2026, 7:15 a.m. EDT3 min readU. S. investors will soon have access to binary options on some publicly traded companies. (geralt/Pixabay)SummaryThis is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already. While traders spent this week watching bitcoin BTC$81,781.42 gyrate above $80,000 amid key U. S. inflation data, a decision from the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission got far less attention. The (SEC) approved the listing of binary options tied to key performance indicators (KPIs) of 23 U. S. publicly traded companies. The metrics include trading volume at crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN), customer count and revenue at Robinhood Markets (HOOD), and bitcoin production at mining firm MARA Holdings (MARA). “For crypto, this creates a new way to trade crypto-linked company performance beyond betting directly on BTC’s price,” Eleanor Terrett, the host of Crypto America, said on X.