The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Ukrainian law enforcement have taken down nine digital currency exchanges suspected of supporting cybercriminals.
The FBI’s Detroit Field Office and the National Police of Ukraine allegedly “conducted coordinated, court-authorized activity” that led to the closure and seizure of the domains of nine virtual currency exchange firms, according to a news statement from May 1.
The websites 24xbtc.com, 100btc.pro, pridechange.com, trust-exchange.org, and bitcoin24.exchange were among the confiscated domains. Each allegedly provided their users with completely anonymous digital currency exchange services while avoiding many of the rules and guidelines demanded of authorized crypto exchanges.
A confiscation notice from the authorities will be shown to anybody trying to access these websites.
According to the FBI, the exchanges, which provided services in both English and Russian, had “lax” anti-money laundering controls and gathered little to no KYC data.
These unauthorized, rogue exchanges, according to the Bureau, “serve as important hubs in the cybercrime ecosystem.”
According to the agency, many of these virtual currency exchanges were “advertised on online forums dedicated to discussing criminal activity.”
“Many of the cyber actors responsible for ransomware, as well as other scammers and cybercriminals, were involved in the criminal activity occurring at the affected exchanges.”
Over the past few months, the FBI has been involved in some cryptocurrency-related cases.
In connection with his position as one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former senior advisers, the FBI searched Ryan Salame’s house on April 27. Ryan Salame was a former FTX executive.
On February 3, the FBI seized two nonfungible tokens (NFTs) valued at more than $100,000 and 86.5 Ether ($1,865) from a phishing fraudster. Independent blockchain detective ZachXBT conducted a thorough investigation that led to the seizure after he initially reported the activities on Twitter in September 2022.
