Bitcoin News and Finance
Russia Fails to Act on Request to Help Freeze Millions in Crypto Withdrawn From Wex Wallet Skip to main content

Russia Fails to Act on Request to Help Freeze Millions in Crypto Withdrawn From Wex Wallet

Russia Fails to Act on Request to Help Freeze Millions in Crypto Withdrawn From Wex Wallet

The Russian Ministry of Interior has rejected a request filed by clients of Wex to do its part in the blocking of crypto funds removed from a wallet controlled by the now-defunct crypto exchange. Over 10,000 ETH have been recently withdrawn from the wallet and transferred to other platforms.

Wex Victims Try to Freeze $46 Million of Cryptocurrency Lost to Bankrupt Russian Exchange

The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (MVD) has refused to act on a request from victims of crypto exchange Wex to take steps aimed at seizing digital assets worth $45.9 million withdrawn from one of its wallets in September. Details were shared on social media by the CEO of Indefibank Sergey Mendeleev who quoted an official document from the department.

The former Wex users have provided the MVD with a detailed scheme of how the funds were transferred from the wallet to other crypto platforms, Forklog reported. They also submitted data from an analytics tool to prove the coins had been stolen and informed authorities they had reached out to Binance where a portion of the amount, 97.8 ETH, was sent. The crypto exchange froze these assets for a period of seven working days.

Current procedures at Binance allow the company’s security department to temporarily freeze funds after receiving convincing evidence of a theft. Then the party that asked for the measure has to contact relevant law enforcement authorities and return a police report to the crypto trading platform. Binance would then cooperate with investigators to resolve the case.

The Wex clients referred to the Russian Interior Ministry calling for the seizure of the stolen funds. However, according to an official response from the department from Oct. 25, the circumstances set out by the victims need further investigation before authorities can take any action. The MVD believes that a decision to confiscate the assets during the preliminary investigation and based on the available information would be premature.

Crypto exchange Wex is the successor of the infamous BTC-e, once Russia’s largest crypto trading platform, which went offline four years ago. In September this year, reports came out that Wex’s former chief executive, Dmitry Vasiliev, has been arrested in Warsaw. They were later confirmed by Polish authorities which also announced they are reviewing an extradition request submitted by Kazakhstan where he is accused of fraud.

Wex was launched in the fall of 2017 and it reportedly reached a daily turnover of $80 million before it suddenly halted withdrawals in the summer of 2018 and eventually went bankrupt. According to estimates by a group of users quoted by Forklog, the total losses exceed $400 million and Vasiliev is suspected of misappropriating $200 million.

The crypto news outlet reported that 100 ETH had been withdrawn from a Wex wallet in mid-September. That’s the first movement of these funds in the past three years, the publication noted. The remaining balance in the wallet, 9,916 ETH worth $30 million at the time, were also transferred to a new address a few days later.

Do you think Wex clients will convince Russian authorities to take action to freeze and seize the funds withdrawn from the exchange’s wallet? Tell us in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory