Cryptocurrency prices have once again dropped, but this time it seems the community has an idea of who’s behind the selling pressure: those behind PlusToken, as they’re cashing out hundreds of millions worth of cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, something unexpected appears to be going on in the Litecoin blockchain. The number of active addresses has been spiking every seven days, in what’s believed to be a massive dusting attack that’s threatening users’ anonymity on LTC.

Speaking of anonymity, it seems top retail banks in the U.S. are failing to identify cryptocurrency-related businesses, so much so they’re processing up to $2 billion in crypto a year.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• $5 Billion Crypto Selloff Associated With PlusTokens’ ‘Scammers’
• Litecoin Blockchain Data Seems to Show a Dusting Attack is Ongoing
• Top Retail Banks Unknowingly Process $2 Billion in Crypto a Year, CipherTrace Claims

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $6,886.96 (-2.71%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.43 billion. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $131.30 (-6.85%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $428.69 mn. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,222.72 (-6.17%).

$5 Billion Crypto Selloff Associated with PlusTokens’ ‘Scammers’

Yesterday the price of most top cryptocurrencies plummeted, with bitcoin dropping below the $7,000 mark for the first time in three weeks, and Ethereum losing 7% of its value to find support at $130. Overall, the crypto market lost about $5 billion in no time.

The selloff, according to blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis, could have been caused by those behind the PlusToken. Chainalysis’ report claims they still controlled 20,000 BTC (now about $137 million) and 790,000 ETH ($102 million). Six people associated with PlusToken have so far been arrested and extradited to China from Vanuatu, where it’s being claimed they ran a Ponzi scheme.

Chainalysis’ report found that around 25,000 BTC ($171.4 million) associated with PlusToken has been cashed out since April 2019 via over-the-counter (OTC) brokers. The report reads:

“As we hypothesized, spikes in on-chain flow to OTC brokers correlate with drops in Bitcoin’s price. There can be a lag, as Bitcoin that is moved on-chain to an exchange is not immediately traded.”

While it isn’t completely clear PlusToken cashing out was behind yesterday’s price movement, an OTC trader speaking to CoinDesk pointed towards the report when asked about the drop.

Litecoin Blockchain Data Seems to Show a Dusting Attack is Ongoing

Data from the Litecoin blockchain seems to show an entity is performing a large-scale dusting attack on LTC users on a weekly basis, threatening their anonymity. These attacks work as small amounts of crypto, in this case litecoin, are sent to addresses. The attackers analyze how the dust is moved by the wallets’ owners, in a bid to identify the person or organization who owns them.

Litecoin blockchain data shows active addresses have been spiking every seven days, from 40,000 to 70,000, before abruptly dropping again. This has created a sawtooth-like pattern on charts, which show the pattern started emerging on August 20, 2019.

Some believe this is correlated with a large-scale dusting attack seen on August 10en the number of active addresses went over 200,000. To protect themselves against these attacks, users are advised to avoid spending the small amounts of LTC they receive on their wallets, to stop the attackers from doing their analysis.

Top Retail Banks Unknowingly Process $2 Billion in Crypto a Year, CipherTrace Claims

A report published by blockchain analysis firm CipherTrace claims that major banks in the United States process roughly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions every year, These funds reportedly stem from money service businesses (MSBs) that deal with cryptos, like exchanges and brokerage services.

The financial institutions are unknowingly processing these cryptocurrency-related transactions as they aren’t reportedly equipped with the latest technology to detect them. CipherTrace’s CEO Dave Jevans was quoted as saying:

“Financial institutions are exposed to cryptocurrency-related risks because they have no way to detect underlying threats.”

These institutions have to identify MSB-derived transactions and report them to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), something CipherTrace believes they’ll start complying with soon even then the transactions are hard to detect.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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