Bitzlato users gain partial withdrawal access on web and mobile platforms

From March 20, users of the Bitzlato crypto-exchange platform’s web version and app, whose infrastructure was seized by the French prosecutor’s office, gained access to partial withdrawals.

Clients can withdraw up to 50% of their Bitcoin balance. The minimum withdrawal is 0.001 BTC, the fee 0.0003 BTC.

Withdrawals are processed via the Telegram bot @bz_phoenix_bot. After pressing start → Web/Mobile, the user must provide the email used to log in to the old Bitzlato account. After verification, a transfer code is generated and sent to the specified email address as a link.

If the address is incorrect, the procedure can be repeated after 24 hours.

Representatives of the exchange emphasised that withdrawals are available only for accounts with a known email and not tied to a Telegram ID. Transfers can only be made to the account that requested the operation. After withdrawal, the user account is deactivated.

At present all assets on Bitzlato are marked as high risk by AML services. As a result, the exchange team advised clients to use platforms without anti-money-laundering checks and cold wallets, or withdraw to a card after the P2P platform launches.

According to the poll, conducted among 3,280 respondents in Bitzlato’s news Telegram group:

• 30% of users withdrew funds without issue;
• 3% encountered temporary asset blocks;
• 4% still have funds blocked;
• 12% cannot decide on a withdrawal service;
• 51% are awaiting the opening of the P2P service.

Given that the poll did not include a “see results” option, its results may diverge from the real situation. Nevertheless, Bitzlato representatives told ForkLog that even so, the obtained statistics align with internal data.

Earlier, on January 17, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested the founder of Bitzlato Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million linked to the Hydra darknet marketplace. The following day, the service’s operation was suspended.

Subsequently, reports emerged of the arrest of former chief executive Mikhail Lunyev, marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko, contractor for Monolithos DAO Pavel Lerner, and the platform’s systems administrator.

As ForkLog later quoted lawyers, all those arrested “were not part of the team but were contractors or consultants; some of them had never participated in the company’s core activities.”

According to Europol, in total the exchange converted assets tied to criminal activity worth around €1 billion ($1.08 billion).