Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) has imposed a 1.1 million euro ($1.2 million) fine on Okcoin Europe, the European arm of cryptocurrency exchange OKX. The penalty was announced on April 3 for violations of Anti-Money Laundering laws as reported by BTC Peers.

The FIAU acknowledged that OKX has made significant improvements to its compliance procedures over the past 18 months. However, regulators stated they "could not ignore" the company's past compliance failures from 2023, which were described as "serious and systematic."

This regulatory action comes shortly after OKX received its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license through its Malta hub in January 2025. This made OKX one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to operate under Europe's new regulatory framework for digital assets.

The fine follows reports that European Union regulators are investigating OKX for allegedly helping launder funds stolen during the Bybit hack. According to Bloomberg's March report, authorities are examining OKX's role in processing potentially illicit funds.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has previously claimed that OKX's Web3 proxy allowed hackers to launder approximately:

• 40,233 Ether (worth about $100 million) from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack that occurred in February

Financial regulations are tightening globally as countries work to balance innovation with investor protection. In India, the government is pursuing aggressive growth in electric vehicle manufacturing while also developing regulatory frameworks to maintain market integrity as the sector grows to rival established players.

This Malta fine presents another regulatory challenge for OKX as it tries to establish legitimate operations in Europe under the new MiCA framework while addressing past compliance issues.

The exchange now faces heightened scrutiny from multiple European regulatory bodies as it works to maintain its recently acquired regulatory status while resolving both past and current compliance concerns.