De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has published an order subject to penalty imposed on Peken Global Limited (PGL), operating under the trade name KuCoin, for providing crypto services in the Netherlands without the registration required under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft). With the forfeiture period now fully elapsed, DNB states that penalties have reached the maximum of EUR 4 million. The order required PGL to stop offering crypto services in or from the Netherlands without DNB registration and allowed eight weeks to comply, ending on 30 September 2024. It specified penalties of EUR 500,000 per week of non-compliance, capped at EUR 4 million, and DNB links the breach to the loss of gatekeeper controls, including the inability to report unusual transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands (FIU-NL) during the non-compliance period. DNB notes that the measure relates to the pre-MiCAR period, when registration with DNB was required, before a licence or notification became required from the Authority for the Financial Markets or another European supervisory authority following the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation’s implementation on 30 December 2024. PGL did not lodge an objection, so the order has become irrevocable.
De Nederlandsche Bank 2025-07-01
De Nederlandsche Bank triggers EUR 4 million penalty against KuCoin operator Peken Global Limited for unregistered crypto services in the Netherlands
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) fined Peken Global Limited (PGL), trading as KuCoin, EUR 4 million for offering crypto services in the Netherlands without required registration under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act. The penalty was due to non-compliance with DNB's order to cease operations without registration, impacting gatekeeper controls and reporting to the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands. The order, now irrevocable, pertains to the pre-MiCAR period before new regulatory requirements took effect.