Darknet services to withdraw blocked assets from crypto exchanges emerge

In the darknet, Russians are being offered ways to withdraw assets blocked on cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Kraken, Huobi, and KuCoin, according to «Коммерсант».

According to experts, such proposals come from people with ties to the security services of the trading platforms. The withdrawal of funds can be made to an unblocked account, or through re-registering the account with the conditions KYC reset.

The fee for such a service starts at 35% of the withdrawn amount and can reach up to 85%. Such advertisements are often fraudulent.

Exchanges may freeze funds due to sanctions imposed on users from certain jurisdictions or at the request of law enforcement authorities if there is a suspicion that the account is being used for money laundering.

Experts said the situation provides an incentive for the development of Russian crypto exchanges and non-custodial services.

Analysts from RegBlock estimate that at present, on foreign trading platforms 10,000–20,000 Russians have blocked accounts with a combined value of 2–3 billion rubles.

As reported, on 6 October the European Union approved the eighth package of sanctions against Russia. Among other measures, it bans Russian citizens and residents from owning cryptocurrency wallets, creating accounts, or storing digital assets on the euro area regardless of the size of the deposit.

ForkLog experts described the situation at the time as “critical” and recommended that Russians withdraw cryptocurrencies from European platforms.

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