Canada Crypto Crackdown: Cryptomus Fined $126M

Canada has fined Cryptomus an eye-watering $126 million for breaking the nation’s anti-money laundering guidelines. Cryptomus, formally registered as Xeltox Enterprises Ltd and based mostly in Vancouver, reportedly didn’t report 1000’s of suspicious transactions, together with ones probably linked to critical crimes equivalent to youngster exploitation, ransomware, and sanctions evasion.

In July 2024 alone, Cryptomus selected to not report over 1,000 situations of suspicious exercise and greater than 1,500 reviews on giant crypto transactions.

Canada’s monetary watchdog, Monetary Transactions and Stories Evaluation Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), introduced the penalty on 22 October 2025 and mentioned that the corporate’s lack of reporting posed a critical threat to Canada’s monetary system.

That is the most important effective that FINTRAC has ever imposed on a single firm. The $126 million penalty is nearly 9 instances bigger than the $14 million effective that KuCoin obtained final month.

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Again in Might, Binance’s Canadian department was additionally fined $4.28 million for comparable points.

In each the instances, the businesses didn’t register correctly and didn’t report large or suspicious crypto transactions, a key requirement by regulation to assist forestall cash laundering.

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Cryptomus Hid Little one Abuse And Iran-Linked Transactions

The Canadian monetary watchdog iterated that investigators discovered Cryptomus to have hidden transactions linked to youngster abuse materials, ransomware, fraud and transfers involving Iran. FINTRAC highlighted in a separate assertion that the nation’s crypto sector has critical weaknesses, which makes it simpler for criminals to take benefit.

Vulnerabilities in Canada’s crypto sector, “considerably impair transparency and accountability and make the sector as an entire inclined to exploitation by illicit actors,” FINTRAC famous.

FINTRAC referred to as the corporate’s inside system as being “incomplete and insufficient.”

Cryptomus Fined C$176.96 M by FINTRAC in Landmark AML Case

Canada’s monetary intelligence company FINTRAC has fined Xeltox Enterprises Ltd. (Cryptomus) a report C$176.96 million (≈ US $126 million) for in depth anti-money-laundering breaches tied to youngster exploitation,… pic.twitter.com/zFVFwkmPc0

— Instances of Blockchain (@TimesOfBlockC_) October 24, 2025

Moreover, the corporate additionally didn’t observe a authorities order requiring further checks on Iran-related transactions, skipping further scrutiny of greater than 7,557 transactions between July and December 2024.

The monetary watchdog additionally discovered that the corporate’s listed Vancouver deal with was only a rented mailbox. There have been no workers or places of work in Canada and all communications through the investigation got here from both Uzbekistan or Spain.

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Cryptomus Moved $250M In Crypto By means of Sanctioned Alternate Garantex

Throughout the investigations, it was revealed that Cryptomus had moved round $250 million in crypto by way of Garantex, a sanctioned Russian alternate accused by the US of serving to criminals launder cash.

Analysts from the analysis agency TRM Labs advised investigators that Cryptomus additionally had ties to Nobitex, an Iranian alternate, and had interacted with a number of cybercrime teams based mostly out of Russia. It additional confirmed that it had witnessed direct transactions between Cryptomus and identified prison networks.

The corporate’s founder, is a sure Sanjar Berdiev from Uzbekistan. A Kazakh patent lawyer named Kakhanova Renata Andreyevna filed for the corporate’s Canadian trademark license. She has additionally filed for a trademark license for one more firm named Xeltox in each the UK and Australia.

FINTRAC mentioned Cryptomus gave them outdated contact particulars, together with a cellphone quantity that isn’t linked to the corporate and an e mail deal with that now not works.