{"id":88759,"date":"2023-12-27T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=88759"},"modified":"2025-09-13T20:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:03:00","slug":"bitzlato-suspends-bitcoin-withdrawals-from-the-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/bitzlato-suspends-bitcoin-withdrawals-from-the-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitzlato suspends bitcoin withdrawals from the platform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On December 27, the Bitzlato crypto-exchange announced the suspension of withdrawals from a special balance and customer support services.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/telegram.org\/js\/telegram-widget.js?22\" data-telegram-post=\"bitzlato_newss\/103\" data-width=\"100%\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The administration described this as &#8220;a temporary measure&#8221; to prepare for upcoming court hearings concerning frozen user assets in France.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We are full of resolve and optimism regarding this matter,&#8221; the statement says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Access to partial bitcoin withdrawals for Bitzlato&#8217;s web version and app users <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-users-gain-partial-withdrawal-access-on-web-and-mobile-platforms\">received<\/a>since March 20. Since September 14, the platform increased the limit <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-to-raise-the-amount-of-bitcoin-available-for-withdrawal\">to 60%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The French public prosecutor&#8217;s office initiated an investigation into the company in January. According to Europol, in total Bitzlato converted assets tied to criminal activity totaling <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/europol-bitzlato-converted-more-than-1-billion-of-assets-linked-to-crime\">about \u20ac1 billion ($1.08 billion)<\/a>. The amount includes $700 million for the Hydra darknet marketplace and $15 million for ransomware operators.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-co-founder-cites-seized-funds-and-announces-restart\">seized<\/a> the platform&#8217;s hot wallet, which held &#8220;around 35% of users&#8217; funds across all cryptocurrencies at the time of the operation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As a reminder, Bitzlato <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-reports-breach-after-hack\">suspended<\/a> operations on January 18, the day after <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-authorities-arrest-founder-of-bitzlato-crypto-platform\">the arrest of its founder<\/a> Anatoly Legkodymov in Miami. Subsequently, he <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-founder-pleads-guilty-to-laundering-700m-and-agrees-to-close-the-company\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to transferring and laundering criminal proceeds. In addition, the entrepreneur agreed to close the platform and renounce any claims to about $23 million tied to the seized assets of the exchange.<\/p>\n<p>Under the deal with investigators, Legkodymov filed <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-founder-seeks-release-from-custody\">a petition for release<\/a> from custody.<\/p>\n<p>It was also reported <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitzlato-co-founder-cites-seized-funds-and-announces-restart\">the arrest of<\/a> former chief executive Mikhail Lunev, marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko, the Monolithos DAO implementation contractor Pavel Lerner, and the platform&#8217;s system administrator.<\/p>\n<p>As ForkLog lawyers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/cleaning-up-the-dirt-which-bitzlato-counterparties-face-new-criminal-charges\">stated<\/a>, all arrested individuals &#8220;were not part of the team, but were either contractors or consultants; some of them never participated in the company&#8217;s core activities&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 27, the Bitzlato crypto-exchange announced the suspension of withdrawals from a special balance and customer support services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88760,"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":[1635,1257],"class_list":["post-88759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitzlato","tag-currency-exchanges"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"23","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759","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=88759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88761,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88759\/revisions\/88761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}