Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is under renewed regulatory scrutiny in Europe after Maltese authorities issued a major fine for violations of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) fined Okcoin Europe — OKX’s Europe-based subsidiary — 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million) after detecting multiple AML failures on the platform in the past, the authority announced on April 3.

While admitting that OKX has significantly improved its AML policies in the past 18 months, the authority “could not ignore” its past compliance failures from 2023, “some of which were deemed to be serious and systematic,” the FIAU notice said.

OKX was among the first crypto exchanges to receive a license under Europe’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation via its Malta hub in January 2025.

The news of the $1.2 million penalty in Malta came after Bloomberg in March reported that European Union regulators were probing OKX for laundering $100 million in funds from the Bybit hack.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou previously claimed that OKX’s Web3 proxy allowed hackers to launder about $100 million, or 40,233 Ether (ETH), from the $1.5 billion hack that occurred in February.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Magazine: Stablecoin for cyber-scammers launches, Sony L2 drama: Asia Express

The new trade tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump may place added pressure on the Bitcoin mining ecosystem both domestically and globally, according to one industry executive.

While the US is home to Bitcoin (BTC) mining manufacturing firms such as Auradine, it’s still “not possible to make the whole supply chain, including materials, US-based,” Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at BTC mining tech provider Braiins, told Cointelegraph.

On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs, imposing a 10% tariff on all countries that export to the US and introducing “reciprocal” levies targeting America’s key trading partners.

Community members have debated the potential effects of the tariffs on Bitcoin, with some saying their impact has been overstated, while others see them as a significant threat.

Tariffs compound existing mining challenges

Csepcsar said the mining industry is already experiencing tough times, pointing to key indicators like the BTC hashprice.

Hashprice — a measure of a miner’s daily revenue per unit of hash power spent to mine BTC blocks — has been on the decline since 2022 and dropped to all-time lows of $50 for the first time in 2024.

According to data from Bitbo, the BTC hashprice was still hovering around all-time low levels of $53 on March 30.

Bitcoin hashprice since late 2013. Source: Bitbo

“Hashprice is the key metric miners follow to understand their bottom line. It is how many dollars one terahash makes a day. A key profitability metric, and it is at all-time lows, ever,” Csepcsar said.

He added that mining equipment tariffs were already increasing under the Biden administration in 2024, and cited comments from Summer Meng, general manager at Chinese crypto mining supplier Bitmars.

Source: Summer Meng

“But they keep getting stricter under Trump,” Csepcsar added, referring to companies such as the China-based Bitmain — the world’s largest ASIC manufacturer — which is subject to the new tariffs.

Trump’s latest measures include a 34% additional tariff on top of an existing 20% levy for Chinese mining imports. In response, China reportedly imposed its own retaliatory tariffs on April 4.

BTC mining firms to “lose in the short term”

Csepcsar also noted that cutting-edge chips for crypto mining are currently massively produced in countries like Taiwan and South Korea, which were hit by new 32% and 25% tariffs, respectively.

“It will take a decade for the US to catch up with cutting-edge chip manufacturing. So again, companies, including American ones, lose in the short term,” he said.

Source: jmhorp

Csepcsar also observed that some countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, including Russia and Kazakhstan, have been beefing up mining efforts and could potentially overtake the US in hashrate dominance.

Related: Bitcoin mining using coal energy down 43% since 2011 — Report

“If we continue to see trade war, these regions with low tariffs and more favorable mining conditions can see a major boom,” Csepcsar warned.

As the newly announced tariffs potentially hurt Bitcoin mining both globally and in the US, it may become more difficult for Trump to keep his promise of making the US the global mining leader.

Trump’s stance on crypto has shifted multiple times over the years. As his administration embraces a more pro-crypto agenda, it remains to be seen how the latest economic policies will impact his long-term strategy for digital assets.

Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23 – 29

More than $21 million worth of Bitcoin was unstaked from the Babylon protocol in the 24 hours after the platform’s token airdrop, according to blockchain data shared by a developer.

On April 4, Bitfeed developer Mononaut shared that in the previous 24 hours, 256 Bitcoin (BTC) had been unstaked from the staking protocol. Mononaut said that the unstaking transactions paid 1.35 BTC in fees and consumed 1.318 Megavirtualbytes (MvB) of blockspace. This means the transactions generated high fees and occupied roughly a third of an entire Bitcoin block. 

The activity followed Babylon’s 600 million airdrop of its native token, BABY, which was distributed to early users and contributors.

Related: Bitcoin L2 ’honeymoon phase’ is over, most projects will fail — Muneeb Ali

Babylon airdrops 600 million tokens to early adopters

In a previous Cointelegraph interview, Babylon co-founder Fisher Yu said that, unlike Ethereum and Solana, Bitcoin staking does not reward stakers in the chain’s native asset. Instead, they may get rewards in the form of the native token of the blockchain secured by the staked Bitcoin capital. 

On April 3, the Babylon Foundation announced the details of the airdrop program for its early adopters. The protocol said the airdrop was dedicated to its Phase 1 stakers, non-fungible token (NFT) holders and developers contributing to its ecosystem. 

The staking protocol said it was airdropping 600 million BABY tokens, 6% of its total supply; 30 million BABY were allocated to the protocol’s Pioneer Pass NFT holders, while 5 million BABY were slated for open-source contributors. 

The rest of the tokens were to be distributed among eligible stakers who participated in the protocol’s Phase 1. This included a stake participation airdrop of 30 million BABY, a base staking reward airdrop of 335 million BABY and a bonus staking reward airdrop for Phase 2 transition of 200 million BABY.  

While the platform distributed an airdrop for its early adopters, it clarified that it did not include wallet campaigns and liquid staking incentives in this airdrop event. 

In response to the airdrop, crypto exchange OKX listed the BABY token and USDT pair in pre-market futures. Pre-market futures allow traders to speculate on an asset’s future price. This allows investors to trade BABY futures before the asset becomes available in spot markets.

Data platform DefiLlama shows that Babylon currently has a total value locked (TVL) of $4.29 billion. This represents 80% of the Bitcoin ecosystem’s overall TVL of $5.34 billion. 

Magazine: New ‘MemeStrategy’ Bitcoin firm by 9GAG, jailed CEO’s $3.5M bonus: Asia Express