National Bank fines BitExchange over GEL 572 million

The National Bank of Georgia issued an additional statement regarding the fine imposed on BitExchange LLC. According to it, the company was fined for violating the rules on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for a number of other violations.

According to the NBG, as a result of the violations identified during the inspection, the company was fined a total of GEL 572,118,000, while each of the company's two administrators was additionally fined GEL 7,000. The bulk of the fine, GEL 572,033,000, is related to violations of customer identification and verification requirements. The company carried out transactions through self-service kiosks in such a way that customer identification and verification were not carried out in the manner established by law. The National Bank notes that identification and verification are mandatory for each transaction regardless of the amount, while verification through kiosks must be carried out through a process agreed with the NBG, which the company failed to ensure. According to the fine rules, such a violation is classified as a serious violation.

During the inspection, another circumstance was revealed: information about the recipient address of one of the most frequently used virtual assets was being searched in public sources, including through Google's search engine. Through the Telegram channel or group associated with this address, the sale of various prohibited substances was reportedly possible. According to the bank, given the intensity, similar characteristics and volume of the transactions, similar transactions were also recorded on addresses of other virtual assets.

The NBG also points to significant deficiencies in the company's electronic systems for recording and processing data. Shortcomings were identified in the system for verifying sanctioned and politically active persons, as a result of which proper verification of customers could not be confirmed, as well as in the system for detecting suspicious and unusual transactions. This prevented the identification of high-risk operations, including related transactions carried out on various blockchains and connections between virtual asset wallets. In addition, the company did not submit reports to the financial monitoring service on two suspicious transactions, although various indicators of suspicion were evident in them. According to the rules, these and deficiencies related to software systems are classified as especially serious violations.

According to the National Bank, the company also submitted incorrect and incomplete information during the inspection. Inconsistencies in the data and the need to repeatedly request information delayed the inspection process. It also could not be confirmed that the company's software systems, human resources and internal control mechanisms corresponded to the scale of its activities, the volume of transactions and the risks of the virtual asset sector.

The statement also refers to Nana Keinishvili. The National Bank stresses that the board, based on the bank's high reputational standards, unanimously decided to recuse Keinishvili from participation in the activities of the NBG board until the investigation is completed and the objective truth is established. According to the NBG, Keinishvili acted alone, which is also confirmed by an audio recording made by a representative of the company, in which he himself speaks about his plans and goals.

The bank explains that supervision of virtual asset service providers did not fall within Keinishvili's area of oversight, so he could not have influenced the decision-making. The inspection process is strictly confidential, and access to information is limited to the relevant team only, including board members. Keinishvili was a non-executive member of the board, so he did not participate in day-to-day executive management and had no operational management mandate.

According to the National Bank, the inspection of BitExchange LLC was carried out as planned in February 2026. Therefore, the statement by the company's representative that the fine is related to information provided to the NBG is, in the bank's assessment, unfounded and aims to deliberately mislead the public.

The NBG also clarified that on-site inspections of several virtual asset service providers are currently underway. In 2026 alone, a total of 51 supervised entities were inspected, including BitExchange. Inspections of other entities have not yet been completed and are not reflected in these statistics. As a result of completed inspections, monetary fines were applied to the vast majority of entities.