€3.25 million, about $3.6 million. That is the fine the Central Bank of Ireland announced on 22 October against Coinbase Ireland for failing to protect customer funds properly, The Block reports.
The figure was cut from €4.65 million after a 30 percent settlement discount. Coinbase admitted the breaches on 21 October and accepted a reprimand, and the sanctions take effect only once the High Court confirms them.
The regulator found that Coinbase Ireland could not accurately calculate how much it had to safeguard each day. Daily shortfalls reached €5.2 million, about $5.8 million, in 2024. Customer money was also mixed with funds held by other Coinbase entities, and about 30 institutional clients paid dollars into accounts held by Coinbase Inc. rather than the Irish firm, from March 2023 to October 2024.
The bank said the Irish arm leaned heavily on its US parent’s infrastructure without enough local expertise to oversee it, and that it had raised governance concerns in July 2022 and March 2023. Had the entity become insolvent, it said, customers might not have been repaid promptly or in full.
Coinbase says the issues are resolved, that no customer lost money or access, and that it reported several of the problems itself in January 2024. The shortfall was fixed in June 2024 and a safeguarding officer was appointed that December.
This is the second Irish penalty in under a year. Coinbase Europe was fined €21.5 million in November 2025 over transaction monitoring.
The caveat is the one the regulator chose to stress. Nobody lost money, but the bank judged the safeguards could not have been relied on if something had gone wrong. The settlement does not say whether other Coinbase entities lean on the parent in the same way.
