Millions of dollars of digital currency in a person’s wallet are sanctioned
An analytics company has recently discovered that millions of dollars of digital currency are kept in wallets that have allegedly been sanctioned by international authorities. The institute says the wallet may be linked to a Russian official or investor.
To Report Kevin Telegraph, the Elliptic Institute for Data Analysis and Blockchain Security in China, has recently worked with various authorities to expose wallets belonging to sanctioned individuals or organizations.
The British-based company has discovered a multimillion-dollar wallet with “significant digital assets” that may belong to sanctioned Russian officials and investors.
Tom Robinson, co-founder of the Elliptical Institute, said in an interview with Bloomberg on March 14 that Russia could use digital currencies to evade sanctions. However, almost all experts now agree that Russia is unlikely to use digital assets to circumvent sanctions. Existing reports also confirm this.
These reports do not specify the exact value or nature of the digital assets in the wallets discovered.
“The dimensions of the use of digital currencies in circumventing sanctions are unclear,” Robinson said.
It is unrealistic that Russian investors can turn all their wealth into digital currencies and circumvent sanctions altogether. Digital currencies are completely traceable. These assets can be used to evade sanctions; But they are not the best solution for this.
Elliptic has so far identified more than 400 digital currency-related services that allow anonymous users to trade their assets in rubles. In addition, the company has discovered that more than 15 million addresses are linked to criminal activities attributed to Russia.
Robinson added that a week before the start of the war, ruble-related activities had increased on some of these platforms. Tornado Cash, for example, the atrium transaction mixer that can anonymously transfer digital currencies based on the ERC-20 standard, has so far refused to restrict its services or comply with sanctions.
Robinson noted that many institutions follow the sanctions, and even well-known exchanges such as Kevin Bass and Bynance have agreed to comply with sanctions imposed by international authorities.
Elliptic has also been monitoring the amount of digital currencies donated to Ukraine from the beginning. The company’s latest report on March 11 shows a total of $ 63.8 million in digital currency sent to the Ukrainian government and a non-governmental organization that supports the Ukrainian military.
However, digital currencies donated to Ukraine are worth much more, at about $ 93.6 million, according to a report published by the Merkle Science Institute using multiple sources.