Policy & Regulation

Canada’s FINTRAC slaps Cryptomus with landmark $126m fine

Published

4 hours ago

October 23, 2025

Canada’s monetary watchdog has imposed the most important wonderful ever on a crypto firm. Vancouver-based Cryptomus faces a $126 million wonderful for failing to report greater than a thousand suspicious transactions linked to darknet markets and terrorist financing in a single month.

Abstract

FINTRAC has fined Vancouver-based Cryptomus $126 million, Canada’s largest crypto wonderful up to now.
Regulators cited greater than 1,000 unreported suspicious transactions and greater than 7,500 transfers linked to Iran.

In a press release, the Monetary Transactions and Reviews Evaluation Middle of Canada introduced that it had imposed an administrative financial penalty of C$176.96 million (roughly $126 million) on Xeltox Enterprises Ltd., the Vancouver-based entity that operates the crypto platform Cryptomus.

The wonderful, issued on October 16, stems from what the company described as non-compliance so severe that it allowed the platform to course of greater than a thousand suspicious transactions in a single month with out a single report back to authorities.

FINTRAC linked these failures to the laundering of proceeds from trafficking in youngster sexual abuse materials, fraud, ransomware and sanctions evasion.

“Provided that quite a few violations on this case associated to the trafficking of kid sexual abuse materials, fraud, ransomware funds and sanctions evasion, FINTRAC was compelled to take this unprecedented enforcement motion,” stated Sarah Paquet, CEO of FINTRAC.

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A sample of non-compliance and cross-border blind spots

FINTRAC’s investigation discovered that Cryptomus went a complete month with out reporting 1,518 separate digital forex transactions that reached or exceeded the C$10,000 threshold.

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This primary reporting requirement is a cornerstone of Canada’s anti-money laundering framework, which is designed to create a monetary path for giant fluctuations in worth. The sheer quantity of those missed notifications signifies a monitoring system that was damaged or absent altogether.

These failures have been compounded by the corporate’s disregard for a particular ministerial directive on Iran. Between July and December 2024, Cryptomus did not report as many as 7,557 transactions originating from the sanctioned nation. By ignoring this, the buying and selling platform would have created a direct channel that might have been exploited for sanctions evasion, a crucial nationwide safety concern.

Notably, this was not an remoted incident for the Vancouver-based firm. The sample of regulatory disregard was already evident final Might, when the BC Securities Fee briefly banned Cryptomus from buying and selling securities and different market actions.

Inside Canada’s evolving crypto panorama, the wonderful marks a turning level. Simply final 12 months, FINTRAC’s largest wonderful, round $20 million, was imposed on KuCoin operator Peken International Ltd. The Cryptomus case eclipses that file almost ninefold and sends a transparent message to digital asset firms that systemic neglect of compliance obligations is now not acceptable.

Learn extra: Russia is within the technique of legalizing crypto in overseas commerce