Cryptomus hit with a $176M fine by FINTRAC

[CreepyUncleJoe]

There were a few threads here about Cryptomus recently, some even recommending it.
Just saw this, FINTRAC fined them $176,960,190 for serious AML violations, including over a thousand unreported suspicious transactions tied to fraud, ransomware, and other crimes.

https://fintrac-canafe.canada.ca/new-neuf/nr/2025-10-22-eng

[PX-Z]

That's a good example of a governing body actually doing its job, and it's definitely a big loss for the exchange. I wonder if their license might eventually get revoked or suspended, especially if they continue to face similar violations and repeated penalties. Regulatory agencies don't usually stay lenient after multiple infractions, well, they earned a lot accepting the fines.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Kind of similar to the fines exchanges like Binance, Kucoin, Bitmex faced in the past, only that it may have been involving different regulators. This is the regulators saying, enforce the KYC/AML Policies or else we shall sue you and impose fines on you any time we feel like

I don't know how big Cryptomus was/is in terms of trading volume, bit that  $176M is really so huge!

[AndreMonzani]

Kind of similar to the fines exchanges like Binance, Kucoin, Bitmex faced in the past, only that it may have been involving different regulators. This is the regulators saying, enforce the KYC/AML Policies or else we shall sue you and impose fines on you any time we feel like

I don't know how big Cryptomus was/is in terms of trading volume, bit that  $176M is really so huge!

Exactly
In my personal experience Cryptomus is working fine, at least as a payment processor it's a good one. I've already used NowPayments as well, but not as good.

About crypto exchanges, most of them already faced this kind of fine before. Even more popular and richer ones...if we avoid to use all services that were fined before, we're cooked.

[Darker45]

It's ironic that just a month ago a Cryptomus shill opened a thread which somehow questioned the relevance of self-custody and argued in favor of KYC/AML, regulatory compliance, custodial solutions, and the like.

In a reply to a post, the shill even mentioned that "KYC is coming to all wallets and will eventually cover the entire crypto market."

Well, here they are fined big for failing to do that very thing they strongly believe is the right thing to do.

[FinneysTrueVision]

Interesting comment from a scam accusation thread against Cryptomus.

Those people understand only one thing, public humiliation. We pushed a case against them to Canada's financial monitor and will follow up on it.

If they were going to engage in shady behavior that was going to get them on law enforcement’s radar, it might not have been the best idea to be based out of Canada. Even if the Canadian registered company is just a shell entity, this will probably lead to an eventual shutdown. Anybody with funds on the platform should assume they will exit scam and withdraw their coins.

[hugeblack]

I did a little research and found that the amount was C$176.9 million, equivalent to $126.14 million. However, this amount is high compared to a highly liquid platform like KuCoin, which was fined approximately $15 million.
Some reports indicate that this is a political fine^[1] related to its relations with Iran.

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cryptomus-fined-177-million-fintrac-9.6948338

[aioc]

These are the breakdown of the fines as reported by Bloomberg

7,557 unreported transactions from Iran (July–Dec 2024).
1,518 unreported large-value transactions (>C$10,000) during the same period.

We all know that Iran has an indirect conflict with the US, and these transactions from a country that conflicts with the US will trigger an alarm.
Cryptomus cannot be considered a top-tier exchange, and this will have a serious repercussion on their reputation and standing in the exchange industry.