{"id":23165,"date":"2025-04-18T11:28:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T08:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/exch-platform-to-shut-down-amid-bybit-money-laundering-allegations\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T11:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T08:28:03","slug":"exch-platform-to-shut-down-amid-bybit-money-laundering-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/exch-platform-to-shut-down-amid-bybit-money-laundering-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"eXch Platform to Shut Down Amid Bybit Money Laundering Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The automated crypto exchange eXch <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcointalk.org\/index.php?topic=577207.msg65286839#msg65286839\">announced<\/a> its closure due to allegations of laundering approximately $1.4 billion, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bybit-exchange-suffers-1-46-billion-loss-in-hack\">stolen<\/a> by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group from Bybit.<\/p>\n<p>The company will cease operations on May 1.<\/p>\n<p>eXch is a platform for automatic cryptocurrency exchange. It focuses on privacy, requiring no registration or <span data-descr=\"Know Your Customer\" class=\"old_tooltip\">KYC<\/span> procedures.<\/p>\n<p>The project&#8217;s leadership stated that the decision was made by the majority of the team members. They claimed that continuing operations is impossible due to &#8220;increased pressure and a mistaken interpretation of their privacy principles.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>eXch is suspected of being used by Lazarus to launder funds stolen from Bybit. Previously, analysts noted a sharp increase in Ethereum volumes on the platform immediately after the hack.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lazarus has started laundering the $1.4B stolen ETH. <\/p>\n<p>Exch[.]cx, a no-KYC exchange, has recorded an abnormal spike in ETH volume\u201420K ETH in the past 24 hours versus its usual 800 ETH. <\/p>\n<p>Their Bitcoin reserves are also empty, but their ETH reserves have increased by 900%. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WBcbBrqPjR\">pic.twitter.com\/WBcbBrqPjR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 vxdb (@vxdb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vxdb\/status\/1893373653129003043?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In February, eXch <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcointalk.org\/index.php?topic=577207.msg65095521#msg65095521\">denied<\/a> the allegations, asserting that opponents of decentralized technologies and privacy were behind them. <\/p>\n<p>In its latest statement, the platform expressed disagreement with the accusations but acknowledged that illegally obtained funds might have been present on it.  <\/p>\n<p>Project representatives also criticized competitors&#8217; initiatives to block funds linked to fraud, calling them a &#8220;false approach&#8221; to combating money laundering. <\/p>\n<p>According to the eXch team, such measures undermine the principles of decentralization and privacy on which crypto technologies are built. Platform representatives emphasized that privacy should not be perceived as a crime.  <\/p>\n<p>eXch also announced the creation of an open-source fund of 50 BTC to support any <span data-descr=\"free and open-source software\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FOSS<\/span> projects.<\/p>\n<p>Back in March, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ben-zhou-majority-of-stolen-bybit-funds-remain-traceable\">stated<\/a> that about 89% of the funds stolen from the exchange could be traced. According to him, 7.6% of the funds &#8220;disappeared into the shadows,&#8221; while another 3.5% were frozen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The automated crypto exchange eXch announced its closure due to allegations of laundering approximately $1.4 billion, stolen by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group from Bybit. The company will cease operations on May 1. eXch is a platform for automatic cryptocurrency exchange. It focuses on privacy, requiring no registration or KYC procedures. The project&#8217;s leadership stated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1151,1257,44,1125],"class_list":["post-23165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bybit","tag-currency-exchanges","tag-cybercrime","tag-lazarus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"49","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}