Media reports: Binance processed Bitcoin transactions totaling $346 million for Bitzlato

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance processed Bitcoin transactions totaling almost $346 million for the Bitzlato exchange. Reuters.

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Earlier, FinCEN named Binance the primary cryptocurrency counterparty to Bitzlato for the period from May 2018 to September 2022, alongside the Hydra darknet marketplace and the Finiko Ponzi scheme. The extent of the authorities’ interactions was not specified.

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Reuters, in collaboration with Chainalysis, found that from May 2018 until Bitzlato’s closure last week, Binance transferred more than 20,000 BTC worth $345.8 million at the time of the transaction. In total, the exchange processed around 205,000 transfers for the Bitzlato exchange.

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During the aforementioned FinCEN period, according to analysts, Binance received Bitcoin worth about $175 million from Bitzlato.

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Additionally, Chainalysis found that about $90 million of the total transfers were made after August 2021, when Binance announced the implementation of KYC procedures to combat financial crime.

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According to the Justice Department’s statement, the Bitzlato platform advertised weaknesses in identity checks and “repeatedly allowed clients to provide information belonging to front entities.”

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Earlier in January, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested the founder of Bitzlato Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million related to Hydra.

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On January 18, the platform’s team stated there had been a hack and withdrawal of part of the funds. After a few hours they announced that the service would be suspended.

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According to Europol, Bitzlato, in total, converted illicit assets totaling around €1 billion ($1.08 billion). The transactions were conducted in Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, as well as in dollars and Russian rubles.

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Also, Europol in Spain arrested Bitzlato’s CEO, CFO and CMO Bitzlato and two other senior platform executives in Cyprus and the United States.

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