Crypto

A senior U.S. senator has opened an inquiry into Binance seeking records on alleged transactions that funneled nearly $2 billion to Iran-linked terrorist organizations and other entities and payments that helped circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, Bloomberg said. 

Cyber-enabled fraud is rapidly expanding in scale and sophistication as criminals exploit digital platforms, instant payments, and virtual assets to move illicit proceeds across borders, an intergovernmental watchdog said on Tuesday.  

Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic has identified four cryptocurrency exchanges that allegedly facilitate Russia sanctions evasion, including by helping to convert rubles into crypto-assets and move value across borders without the direct aid of traditional banking channels. 

A 42-year-old American citizen suspected by French investigators of leading a vast international money laundering network known as “Dark Bank” has been extradited from the United States to France, Le Monde reported.

Binance internal investigators found last year that about $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency flowed from two accounts on the exchange to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups, raising potential violations of global sanctions.

Hungary plans to block an EU sanctions package targeting Moscow and major new loans intended for Kyiv unless oil shipments resume through the Druzhba pipeline crossing western Ukraine. 

Austria’s financial regulator has ordered KuCoin’s European arm to stop taking on new business after the crypto exchange lost key compliance staff in the months following the firm getting a green light to operate under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime.

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance who was pardoned by President Trump in October, returned to the U.S. this week and attended a Trump-backed crypto conference alongside the president’s sons and senior administration officials.

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the Mexican billionaire behind Grupo Elektra, thought he’d done enough due diligence when he decided to invest $400 million in Bitcoin as the value of the cryptocurrency surged in the spring of 2021. 

Stablecoins have become both core crypto “plumbing” and a key rail for the most consequential forms of crypto-enabled crime, with illicit activity increasingly concentrated in a handful of large, sanctions-linked networks.