The Dutch government has taken action against illegally-operating crypto currency companies for the first time, the Financieele Dagblad said on Thursday.

Many foreign crypto currency firms are not registered with the central bank, which threatened last year to take legal action against them because unregulated firms are not compliant with anti money laundering regulations.

Last year the bank started legal action against 18 companies and in 14 cases, the crypto currency firm either left the Netherlands or registered with the central bank, the FD said.

Two cases are still pending and two others have been resolved but the bank has declined to say which companies are involved.

Since 2020, when new legislation to combat money laundering was introduced in the Netherlands, crypto currency firms have been required to formally verify the identity of all their clients.

Dutch crypto currency firms, which do fall under central bank supervision, argue that they are being disadvantaged by the foreign operators, who do not face the same costs and can therefore offer lower fees to clients.

Some 1.2 million people in the Netherlands are thought to invest in crypto currencies, many of who use firms such as Crypto.com, Kraken and Binance which are not registered with the central bank, the FD said.