Ukrainian Cyber Police And FBI Close Illegal Crypto Exchange Operations

Ukrainian Police and FBI have frozen illegal crypto exchanges. (Photo; Doc. Bitcoin Addict)

JAKARTA - The Ukrainian cyber police in collaboration with the FBI have successfully carried out an operation to close nine cryptocurrency exchanges deemed illegal. The cryptocurrency exchange offers an anonymous exchange and is used to facilitate money laundering resulting from criminal activities such as malware attacks and online fraud.

These nine exchanges provide cryptocurrency exchange services without user identities. The criminals use it to wash digital assets resulting from their crimes. This service is also marketed on closed hacker forums.

Operations carried out by Ukraine and the FBI have succeeded in blocking the network infrastructure on servers in the United States, several European countries, and Ukraine. Authorities are also trying to identify all individuals involved in this criminal activity.

In a report in March, it was discovered that employees of Cyberpolice Ukraine, the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) participated in cryptocurrency class training organized by the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The training was carried out as part of the authorities' efforts to increase their understanding of cryptocurrencies.

The Ukrainian cyber police have succeeded in dismantling a cryptocurrency fraud scheme worth more than US$200 million (Rp2.9 trillion) per year in November 2022. In addition, the Russian cryptocurrency pyramid scheme worth US$40 million (Rp587 billion) was also successfully destroyed in April.

The closing of nine illegal cryptocurrency exchanges shows that authorities continue to step up their efforts to monitor cryptocurrency activity in Ukraine.

Although cryptocurrencies can bring huge profits, their illegal use could jeopardize financial security. Therefore, it is necessary to have strict law enforcement against illegal activities related to cryptocurrencies.