Canada’s anti-money-laundering watchdog has levied its largest-ever penalty – more than $176-million – against cryptocurrency exchange Cryptomus for failing to flag transactions allegedly linked to serious crimes such as the trafficking of child-abuse material.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FinTRAC, announced the record-breaking, $176,960,190 penalty against B.C.-based Xeltox Enterprises Ltd., which operates as Cryptomus, on Wednesday.

FinTRAC said it conducted a compliance examination and found that the exchange had failed to file suspicious transaction reports on 1,068 separate occasions in July, 2024.

The watchdog said Cryptomus neglected to flag transactions for which there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” that the money had been obtained through fraud, the trafficking of child-abuse material, sanctions evasion and ransomware payments.

The penalty surpassed FinTRAC’s previously highest-ever fine of nearly $20-million, levied against Seychelles-based crypto exchange KuCoin last month.