Land of confusion for Genesis as money laundering and cybersecurity failures cost platform $8 MILLION

DIGITAL Currency Group subsidiary Genesis Global Trading has been hit with an $8m fine after the New York Department of Financial Services found serious failures in its cybersecurity and anti-money laundering policies.

The cryptocurrency brokerage company, which has labelled a slew of new regulations across the digital asset industry as 'confusing', has also been forced to give up its 'BitLicence' for New York. The document is a prerequisite for any crypto firm that wishes to offer services in the state. Genesis had held the licence for six years.

Following two investigations, DFS chiefs found that Genesis breached compliance requirements over anti-money laundering and the Bank Secrecy Act by not filing enough 'suspicious activity reports'.

NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris slammed the company's "disregard" for the rules in her summary of the findings.

“DFS’s virtual currency and cybersecurity regulations are often cited as the gold standard, providing clear and stringent requirements to protect consumers and safeguard institutions from bad actors,” she said.

“Genesis Global Trading’s failure to maintain a functional compliance program demonstrated a disregard for the Department’s regulatory requirements and exposed the company and its customers to potential threats."