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Canada has fined Cryptomus an eye-watering $126 million for breaking the country’s anti-money laundering rules. Cryptomus, officially registered as Xeltox Enterprises Ltd and based in Vancouver, reportedly failed to report thousands of suspicious transactions, including ones potentially linked to serious crimes such as child exploitation, ransomware, and sanctions evasion.
In July 2024 alone, Cryptomus chose not to report over 1,000 instances of suspicious activity and more than 1,500 reports on large crypto transactions.
Canada’s financial watchdog, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), announced the penalty on 22 October 2025 and said that the company’s lack of reporting posed a serious risk to Canada’s financial system.
This is the biggest fine that FINTRAC has ever imposed on a single company. The $126 million penalty is almost nine times larger than the $14 million fine that KuCoin got last month.
🗡️ Is crypto regulation killing innovation? Despite $126M fines like Canada’s Xeltox crackdown, compliant projects see 30% higher adoption (BlackRock data)! → Resist, lose the Web3 race. 🚨🪙 Will Ethereum’s ‘auto-compliance’ smart contracts make regulators obsolete? #Cry pic.twitter.com/jGCNESVz1h
— TrackerAI (@TrackerAI) October 22, 2025
Back in May, Binance’s Canadian branch was also fined $4.28 million for similar issues.
In both the cases, the companies failed to register properly and didn’t report big or suspicious crypto transactions, a key requirement by law to help prevent money laundering.
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Cryptomus Hid Child Abuse And Iran-Linked Transactions
The Canadian financial watchdog iterated that investigators found Cryptomus to have hidden transactions linked to child abuse material, ransomware, fraud and transfers involving Iran. FINTRAC highlighted in a separate statement that the country’s crypto sector has serious weaknesses, which makes it easier for criminals to take advantage.
Vulnerabilities in Canada’s crypto sector, “significantly impair transparency and accountability and make the sector as a whole susceptible to exploitation by illicit actors,” FINTRAC noted.
FINTRAC called the company’s internal system as being “incomplete and inadequate.”
Cryptomus Fined C$176.96 M by FINTRAC in Landmark AML Case
Canada’s financial intelligence agency FINTRAC has fined Xeltox Enterprises Ltd. (Cryptomus) a record C$176.96 million (≈ US $126 million) for extensive anti-money-laundering breaches tied to child exploitation,… pic.twitter.com/zFVFwkmPc0
— Times of Blockchain (@TimesOfBlockC_) October 24, 2025
Additionally, the company also failed to follow a government order requiring extra checks on Iran-related transactions, skipping extra scrutiny of more than 7,557 transactions between July and December 2024.
The financial watchdog also found that the company’s listed Vancouver address was just a rented mailbox. There were no staff or offices in Canada and all communications during the investigation came from either Uzbekistan or Spain.
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Cryptomus Moved $250M In Crypto Through Sanctioned Exchange Garantex
During the investigations, it was revealed that Cryptomus had moved around $250 million in crypto through Garantex, a sanctioned Russian exchange accused by the US of helping criminals launder money.
Analysts from the research firm TRM Labs told investigators that Cryptomus also had ties to Nobitex, an Iranian exchange, and had interacted with several cybercrime groups based out of Russia. It further confirmed that it had witnessed direct transactions between Cryptomus and known criminal networks.
The company’s founder, is a certain Sanjar Berdiev from Uzbekistan. A Kazakh patent lawyer named Kakhanova Renata Andreyevna filed for the company’s Canadian trademark license. She has also filed for a trademark license for another company named Xeltox in both the UK and Australia.
FINTRAC said Cryptomus gave them outdated contact details, including a phone number that is not linked to the company and an email address that no longer works.
Key Takeaways
Canada fined Cryptomus $126M for failing to report 2,593 suspicious crypto transactions
FINTRAC found links to child abuse, ransomware, and Iran-related transfers in unreported activity
Cryptomus moved $250 million for sanctioned Russian exchange, Garantex
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