EtherDelta — $450,000 OFAC Penalty (2018)
OFAC settled with EtherDelta for operating an unregistered exchange and sanctions violations.
Penalty amount: $450,000 · Year: 2018 · Enforcer: OFAC (US Treasury)
What happened
EtherDelta was penalized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2018. The case is instructive for any organization handling cross-border payments, crypto transactions, or customer onboarding where sanctioned parties may be present.
Violations cited
- Facilitating transactions with sanctioned addresses
- Operating without sanctions screening
- Failure to register as an exchange
Lessons for compliance teams
- Screen every wallet address before allowing trades
- Implement real-time SDN list matching
- Register with appropriate regulators
- Maintain complete transaction records
How this could have been prevented
In nearly every OFAC penalty case, the root cause is the same: inadequate or outdated sanctions screening. The sanctioned parties were on the SDN list at the time — they simply weren't caught. Real-time screening against the current SDN list, with proper name-matching and fuzzy logic, would have flagged most of these transactions before they completed.
Free screening: SanctionsAI provides a free OFAC sanctions screening API. Screen customers, wallets, and transactions against the SDN list in real time. Get API key →