{"id":73353,"date":"2023-01-31T18:31:20","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T16:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=73353"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:41:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T10:41:37","slug":"bitzlato-co-founder-cites-seized-funds-and-announces-restart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/bitzlato-co-founder-cites-seized-funds-and-announces-restart\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitzlato co-founder cites seized funds and announces restart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange platform plans to resume operations and immediately allow users to withdraw bitcoins. This was stated by Bitzlato co-founder Anton Shkurenko in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fVgZLI7CHE0&#038;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&#038;feature=emb_title\">interview<\/a> with the YouTube channel Satoshkin.<\/p>\n<p>According to Shkurenko, as part of an investigation initiated by the French prosecutors, law enforcement authorities &#8220;seized&#8221; the platform&#8217;s hot wallet, which held &#8220;about 35% of users&#8217; funds across all cryptocurrencies at the time of the operation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He did not name the exact amount, citing fluctuations in exchange rates. He also disputed the \u20ac1 billion figure mentioned in a media report.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;The company never had money in such an amount, especially in hot wallets. We took a very responsible approach to safeguarding users&#8217; funds, and such an amount could not be seized,&#8221; said Shkurenko.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He also disclosed the names of four Bitzlato employees detained in the case, in addition to its founder Anatoly Legkodymov. They are:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>former chief executive Mikhail Lunev;<\/li>\n<li>marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko;<\/li>\n<li>contractor for the Monolithos DAO realization Pavel Lerner;<\/li>\n<li>system administrator Konstantin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The latter has, according to Shkurenko, already been released on bail and is under a travel ban in Cyprus.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ongoing investigation, Bitzlato has decided to resume operations. No concrete timeline was given.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;The only thing I can state with 100 percent certainty at this stage is: 50% of user funds in Bitcoin stored on Bitzlato wallets will be withdrawable on the same day we launch. For other cryptocurrencies, the launch will be gradual,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At present, Bitzlato is auditing losses and plans to move the company to the Russian jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Europol was in a great hurry because they knew we would relocate to Russia. We will relocate with wallets and absolutely everything; they will have nothing, literally,&#8221; added Shkurenko.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The company is now seeking a data-centre contractor to host its equipment. The co-founder noted that &#8220;the service will be launched in the form in which it was shut down on January 18&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We recognise that we made some mistakes. On the shut-down service we will be able to fix them very quickly, because on a running service this was quite difficult to do. And we will secure users&#8217; funds in every possible way, because it would simply be useless [for law enforcement],&#8221; said Shkurenko.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In January, the U.S. Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-authorities-arrest-founder-of-bitzlato-crypto-platform\">arrested the founder of Bitzlato<\/a> Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million tied to Hydra.<\/p>\n<p>On January 18, the platform team <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-reports-breach-after-hack\">stated that there had been a hack and withdrawal of part of the funds<\/a>. A few hours later they announced the suspension of service.<\/p>\n<p>According to Europol, Bitzlato converted assets linked to criminal activity totaling around <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/europol-bitzlato-converted-more-than-1-billion-of-assets-linked-to-crime\">\u20ac1 billion ($1.08 billion)<\/a>. Transactions were conducted in Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, as well as dollars and Russian rubles.<\/p>\n<p>The main <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/binance-hydra-and-finiko-named-leading-counterparties-in-bitzlato-case\">receiving counterparties of Bitzlato<\/a> are named the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the darknet marketplace Hydra, and the financial pyramid &#8220;Finiko.&#8221; In particular, according to reports, Binance processed bitcoin transactions for the exchange totaling almost <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/media-reports-binance-processed-bitcoin-transactions-totaling-346-million-for-bitzlato\">$346 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange platform plans to resume operations and immediately partially allow users to withdraw bitcoins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73354,"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":[1635,1153,1257,1444],"class_list":["post-73353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitzlato","tag-confiscation","tag-currency-exchanges","tag-law-enforcement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"16","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73353","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=73353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73355,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73353\/revisions\/73355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}