Dutch Crypto Triumphs: Court Rejects DNB's $2.3M Registration Fees As Overreach

Dutch cryptocurrency companies, including prominent names like Bitvavo and Binance's successor Coinmerce, have achieved a partial victory in their battle against the $2.3 million fees levied by Dutch regulators.

The contention arose from the charges imposed by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) for registration related to anti-money laundering measures.

This development comes ahead of Benzinga's Future of Digital Assets conference on Nov. 14, where such regulatory challenges and their implications on the crypto industry will be a focal point of discussions.

The Rotterdam court, in its two judgments delivered on Wednesday, opined that the DNB exceeded its legal authority when it charged companies for registration for anti-money laundering purposes.

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The DNB has been billing supervised entities annually based on the projected supervision costs for the respective year. This practice was extended to cryptocurrency service providers in 2020.

However, several of these crypto firms contested these charges, arguing in court that the registration framework introduced in 2020 did not envision passing on the supervisory costs to them.

They further posited that they shouldn't be classified as supervised entities.

The recent court judgments have brought some relief to these firms, although the broader implications of this decision remain to be seen.

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