{"id":72773,"date":"2023-01-19T12:52:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T10:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=72773"},"modified":"2025-09-09T10:14:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T07:14:31","slug":"binance-hydra-and-finiko-named-leading-counterparties-in-bitzlato-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/binance-hydra-and-finiko-named-leading-counterparties-in-bitzlato-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Binance, Hydra and Finiko named leading counterparties in Bitzlato case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Binance cryptocurrency exchange, the darknet marketplace Hydra and the Finiko pyramid have entered the top three counterparties receiving funds on the Bitzlato exchange, which U.S. authorities accuse of laundering $700 million. This is stated in <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/shared\/Order_Bitzlato_FINAL%20508.pdf\\\">the order <span data-descr=\\\"Financial Crimes Enforcement Network within the U.S. Department of the Treasury\\\" class=\\\"old_tooltip\\\">FinCEN<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the agency, these three companies, from May 2018 to September 2022, received the largest volumes of bitcoins from Bitzlato.<\/p>\n<p>Over the same period, the top three sending counterparties included Hydra, the P2P platform LocalBitcoins and the Finiko.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cApproximately two-thirds of the main counterparties receiving from and sending to Bitzlato are linked to darknet marketplaces or fraud,\u201d FinCEN noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A Binance spokesperson said the exchange is prepared to provide law enforcement with \\&#8221;substantial assistance\\&#8221; in the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>FinCEN designated Bitzlato as a \\&#8221;primary money-laundering concern\\&#8221;. According to the order, the platform is barred from transferring funds to any financial institutions, as it played a key role in processing illicit transactions by ransomware operators in Russia.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Bitzlato&#8217;s transaction activity \\&#8221;shows a substantial link with illicit counterparties\\&#8221;, such as darknet marketplaces and scammers from Russia, the agency added.<\/p>\n<p>On January 18, the Bitzlato team <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-reports-breach-after-hack\">stated that there had been a hack and the withdrawal of part of the funds<\/a>. A few hours later, the platform announced that the service would be suspended.<\/p>\n<p>On the evening of January 17, the U.S. Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-authorities-arrest-founder-of-bitzlato-crypto-platform\">arrested the platform&#8217;s founder<\/a> Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million tied to Hydra.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\\\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener\\\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, rates and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Binance, Hydra and the Finiko pyramid were among the top three counterparties receiving funds on the Bitzlato exchange, which U.S. authorities accuse of laundering $700 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[744,1635,1154,269,1557,1720],"class_list":["post-72773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-binance","tag-bitzlato","tag-crimes","tag-fincen","tag-finiko","tag-hydra"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"21","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72773","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=72773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72775,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72773\/revisions\/72775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}