Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero are the most popular cryptocurrencies among criminals in Russia. This was reported by TASS, said German Neglyad, deputy director of Rosfinmonitoring.
“In Russia, besides Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero are also popular for criminal purposes in general, not only for financing terrorism,” he noted.
According to Neglyad, the agency records facts of illicit activity involving digital assets in cooperation with financial intelligence divisions of foreign states.
“Rosfinmonitoring has about a hundred agreements, including with European countries,” he clarified.
On the basis of these observations, the agency opened several criminal cases.
German Neglyad added that Rosfinmonitoring, together with banks, tracks operations exchanging cryptocurrencies for rubles:
“Banks have already started paying attention to the exchange operations of virtual assets into hard currency; they are already evaluating them and informing us about these operations.”
Since October 2021, Rosfinmonitoring and the Bank of Russia will introduce a separate code for suspicious cryptocurrency exchange operations to “guide traditional financial institutions on this problem,” the official said.
Earlier in February, Rosfinmonitoring, together with law enforcement and the Academy of Sciences, developed a service that will allow tracking cryptocurrency transactions and identify their ultimate beneficial owner.
From January 1, 2021, the Russian Federation’s law “On Digital Financial Assets” came into force, prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services.
In 2020, the total volume of cryptocurrency payments on the darknet amounted to $1.7 billion. Russia, the United States and Ukraine ranked among the top three by turnover of funds on the black market.
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