OKX Exchange Fined $1.2M Over Money Laundering Rules

• OKX was fined $1.2 million by Malta’s FIAU for anti-money laundering violations found during a 2023 compliance review.
• The exchange was also penalized in the US, agreeing to pay over $504 million for operating without a license.

OKX, a crypto exchange with millions of users worldwide, has just been fined €1.1 million (around $1.2 million) by Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU). Not because of a technical error or bug in their system, but because they were deemed to have violated anti-money laundering rules.

The Maltese watchdog conducted an inspection in April 2023 and found that OKX’s business risk assessment system was very weak. Imagine if a bank approved all account opening requests without checking anyone’s identity — that’s more or less what’s at issue.

RECENTLY: The FIAU, Malta's regulator, fined OKX's European subsidiary €1.1 million ($1.2 million) for past Anti-Money Laundering violations, despite recent compliance improvements. pic.twitter.com/rjUr66o5Ms

— ChainDesk (@ChainDesk_) April 4, 2025

Furthermore, about half of the customers’ data that was checked did not have a proper risk assessment record when they first opened an account. In fact, this section should be the main foundation for any financial institution to be able to recognize potential dangers, especially when it comes to money laundering.

Apart from that, the FIAU also noted weaknesses in transaction monitoring and reporting of suspicious activity. All of this became the basis for the Maltese authorities to impose a fine on the exchange.

Legal Troubles Keep Stacking Up for OKX

However, this is not the first time OKX has been caught up in legal matters. On the other hand, CNF previously reported that OKX’s parent company, Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd., has pleaded guilty in a US federal court to charges of operating an unlicensed money transfer business.

The US government is not playing around: they said that OKX knowingly targeted customers from the United States but deliberately skipped the necessary legal procedures. As part of the settlement, OKX agreed to pay more than $504 million in fines and forfeitures.

This shows a pattern where when one country starts to highlight compliance gaps, others may have been watching for much longer. Not only that, it emphasizes that in the crypto world, user trust is very easy to shake if companies do not maintain legal and ethical foundations.

Maintaining User Trust Through Reports and Upgrades

Despite being hit with various fines, OKX continues to demonstrate its commitment to transparency. On March 31, 2025, they released their 29th consecutive Proof of Reserves report.

This means that for almost two years without a break, OKX has consistently reported that it holds more than 100% of user assets for major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether. In practice, this means that if all users withdraw funds at the same time, OKX can still fulfill it without any shortage.

Indeed, proof of reserves is not everything, but it is still important as a sign of the exchange’s seriousness in protecting user funds. Especially after several other exchanges collapsed because they turned out to have put user funds in places that could not be reached when the crisis hit.

Interestingly, on the same day as the release of the proof of reserves, OKX Wallet also launched a new integration with Stable Jack — a trading protocol that allows trading of various assets from one place.

This integration opens access for OKX Wallet users to use more advanced trading features, directly from their wallet interface. In a way, this is a kind of magic of a digital wallet into a one-stop shop for digital asset trading activities.