CoinList crypto exchange has reached a settlement with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by paying a fine of $1.2 million following allegations of allowing users from the Crimean Peninsula to use its platform.
89 user accounts from the Crimea Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia, were identified. Despite the country of residence mostly being listed as ‘Russia’, CoinList opened accounts for customers using Crimean addresses during account creation.
OFAC emphasized that the fine was significantly reduced from the potential maximum amount of $327 million due to CoinList’s past compliance with the regulations, cooperation, and the fact that the number of transactions carried out through these accounts was small compared to the exchange’s total transaction volume.
CoinList stated that reaching an agreement with OFAC is seen as a learning opportunity and declared its decision to invest in compliance. The exchange committed to investing $300,000 in compliance controls to strengthen its compliance commitment.
CoinList is a relatively small crypto exchange with a daily trading volume of only $400,000. On the other hand, Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, processes billions of dollars in daily trading volume. CoinList successfully completed a funding round in October 2021 that raised the company’s valuation to $1.5 billion.