#russian

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against Aleksei Andriunin, the 26-year-old Russian founder of Gotbit, alleging his involvement in a large-scale cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme. According to investigators, Gotbit provided services that artificially boosted trading volumes for tokens of various crypto companies, including some based in the U.S., with the intent to manipulate prices.

The fiat gateway from Advcash made it possible for users to transfer their money stored in Russian banks, which have fallen under sanctions, to the exchange. The user base is spreading this news, having gotten notifications from the exchange about it. Nevertheless, Advcash representatives assert that they haven’t received any communications from Binance concerning updates to their partnership.

Ukraine's Security Service has successfully dismantled a significant underground network that was carrying out unauthorized financial transfers between Russia and Ukraine, making use of banned Russian payment systems and digital currencies. Active in four regions, these secretive hubs were handling over $1 million each month. Platforms like Yumoney, Webmoney, and various cryptocurrencies were employed to change Russian rubles into digital currencies and subsequently into Ukrainian hryvnia. The primary customer base was made up of hackers and companies participating in under-the-table transactions with Russia.

Ekaterina Zhdanova, a Russian national, is now under sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s OFAC for her role in laundering substantial funds and facilitating their illicit transfer overseas through cryptocurrency channels.

Binance has agreed to sell its entire russian assets to CommEX, marking a full exit from the country. The transition will take up to a year, ensuring a smooth migration for existing russian users. Notably, CommEX is a newly launched exchange, just one day into its official journey. Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, reflects on Binance's exit from the russian market: “There’s no longer room for any business to stay “neutral”. Blockchain technology is neutral but people leading crypto businesses should not be.” Check out our exclusive interview with Alex Bornyakov, where we delve into Ukrainian blockchain projects and digital education on the Diia.Digital platform.

Russian dev Alexey Pertsev will stay in jail until his hearing scheduled for April 21. This is the third that his lawyers’ request for bail was dismissed. His first appeal was rejected in August, the second – in November. The Dutch court clings to such a heavy-handed approach due to Pertsev's alleged ties with the FSB and the North Korean hackers Lazarus Group. This crime is rated as more severe than just tax evasion.

The russian Solaris platform was hacked by the Kraken trading platform, which also targets the russian-speaking audience. Kraken claims to have taken control of Solaris' infrastructure and Gitlab repository, as well as locking and emptying its crypto wallets. Both platforms are linked to a Russian operator and both have about 25% market share of the total volume of drugs and weapons sold on the dark web. It is known for certain that Solaris used the services of pro-Kremlin hackers Killnet, which launched DDoS attacks on Ukrainian and European government servers in 2022. All Solaris clients are now automatically redirected to the Kraken website because the hackers not only took control of the code and wallets but also set up a redirect. There are three things you can watch forever: fire burning, water falling, and Russians destroying each other. It is still unknown what kind of Kraken it is. Maybe it's some of ours

Alex Holden, a hacker from Ukraine, has a singular gift for tracking down "bad russian guys" on the Internet. This week, he stole $25,000 in BTC from the russian dark web marketplace dubbed Solaris, and transferred the money to Kyiv charitable foundation "Enjoying Life".