Washington State DFI Takes Action Against CoinFlip

Olympia – The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) issued a Statement of Charges (Charges) against GPD Holdings, LLC, dba CoinFlip. DFI’s charges allege that CoinFlip’s crypto kiosks business model poses a heightened risk to seniors being scammed, and that more than 50% of the company’s business in Washington came from seniors. The Charges follow an examination that showed CoinFlip failed to adequately protect consumers due to their deficient compliance and risk management practices. 

The Charges also allege that CoinFlip: 

• Did not follow Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) laws; 
• Did not follow due diligence procedures and allowed customers to continue with transactions when required documents were not provided; 
• Did not follow the company’s own terms of service; 
• Did not timely review a backlog of transaction alerts that was 6-9 months past due; 
• Did not have sufficient transaction monitoring; 
• Did not enforce its own transaction limits; 
• Did not comply with federal reporting requirements; 
• Did not timely file Currency Transaction Reports; 
• Did not provide required virtual currency disclosures to Washington consumers; 
• Did not timely or at all provide required refunds to Washington consumers; 
• Provided inaccurate transaction costs to consumers. 

“State regulators' examination work is critical, and DFI will take action to address problems when companies fail to meet compliance expectations,” DFI Director Charlie Clark said. “The Charges in this case are an example of state regulation in action to protect Washington consumers.” 

Based on the alleged violations of the Uniform Money Services Act, DFI seeks to revoke CoinFlip’s license, prohibit the company and its responsible individual from the industry, and order the company and its responsible individual to pay a fine of $1,029,600. The fine sought by DFI is significant due to the high number and nature of the alleged violations that harmed Washington seniors the most. CoinFlip and its responsible individual both have a right to request a hearing to contest DFI’s Charges. 

Washington State consumers may submit complaints about crypto kiosk issues via DFI’s online complaint form. 

Documents

Statement of Charges