Bitcoin exchange Bittrex fined $29 million

Bittrex fined $29 million by OFAC and FinCEN.

OFAC FinCEN fined the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex $29 million for repeated violations of sanctions policies and AML procedures. According to the press release.

“Bittrex failed to prevent individuals evidently located in Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria from using the platform to conduct virtual-currency transactions totaling $263,451,600.13 between March 2014 and December 2017,” the U.S. Treasury’s website says.

Officials emphasized that the sanctions regime prohibits U.S. persons from transacting with these jurisdictions. In doing so, Bittrex did not verify the information and did not report suspicious activity.

OFAC Director Andrea Gacki noted the following:

“Global cryptocurrency exchanges must understand who their customers are and where they are located.”

As of writing, Bittrex ranks 77th by daily trading volume ($15.2 million) in CoinGecko’s ranking.

In February 2021, OFAC fined the payment-processing service BitPay more than $500,000 for operations involving Crimea, North Korea and Iran.

Back in August 2022, OFAC added the Tornado Cash site to the sanctions list, as well as related 39 Ethereum addresses and 6 USDC addresses, for suspected laundering of more than $7 billion.

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