Hi HODLers,
Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-based platform, has been effectively shut down.
Its founder, Anatoly Legkodymov was taken into U.S. custody, claims were made that Bitzlato was catering to criminals tied to Russia.
This investigation was conducted by:
- the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
- French authorities and
- the U.S. Treasury Department
The Media is portraying this exchange as something important
The little-known cryptocurrency exchange offered peer-to-peer services and hosted wallets of criminals buying and selling illegal goods, according to Justice Department officials, involving $700 million in direct and indirect transfers in the last several years.
Interesting and definitely something sizeable. If you have been in crypto for many years, you probably never heard of this exchange and tehrefore, this is a trophy for the US administration but has little to no impact for crypto users / businesses.
In addition, I am sure plenty of these exists and still operate for other governments such as Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The fact that this one was heavily targeted by Western powers is probably due to doing business with Russia.
Stay safe out there,