Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has aided the Ukrainian Cyber Police in busting an alleged cryptocurrency money laundering operation in June, according to a recent announcement.

Crypto exchange Gemini has started offering trading and storing services to registered investment advisors (RIAs). The firm partnered with San Francisco-based crypto investing platform Blockchange to that end.

The hackers who managed to steal around 120,000 BTC from crypto exchange Bitfinex back in 2016 have once again started moving the stolen funds, with Whale Alert recording 473.3 bitcoin moving into an unknown wallet.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance Helps Take Down Ukrainian Cybercriminal Group Laundering $42 Million
• Gemini Starts Offering Trading and Storing Services to Registered Investment Advisors
• Bitfinex Hackers Seemingly Pass On $400 Million Reward, Move $5.6 Million

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $11,823.83 (3.35%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $5.21 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $414.34 (-3.81%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $2.19 bn. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 4,689.30 (-2.48%).

Binance Helps Take Down Ukrainian Cybercriminal Group Laundering $42 Million

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has aided the Ukrainian Cyber Police in busting an alleged cryptocurrency money laundering operation in June, according to a recent announcement.

Ukrainian authorities have said an unnamed group distributed ransomware and washed hacked funds to the tune of $42 million, using a robust darknet money laundering network it built over a two-year period.

Three suspects were arrested in late June of this year after Binance’s internal data security team aided authorities in their operations, using its fraud detection and crypto tracing techniques, according to cyberpolice  Department Chief Oleksandr Hrynchak.

Binance’s Sentry division worked with TRM Labs to detect and identify the group, as part of the exchange’s ongoing campaign on investigating “Bulletproof Exchangers,” which are platforms ““well-known for their lenient know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies“ with a high transaction volume linked to high-risk entities. An announcement Binance published reads:

“Suspicious activity detected and analyzed by the Binance Sentry team, in collaboration with the Cyber Police of Ukraine, led to the identification and arrest of a cybercriminal organization responsible for a ransomware campaign and the laundering of more than $42 million in cryptocurrencies over the last two years.”

Authorities seized $200,000  in computer equipment, weapons, ammunition, cash and "digital evidence" linked the arrested suspects to the darknet money laundering campaign.

Gemini Starts Offering Trading and Storing Services to Registered Investment Advisors

Crypto exchange Gemini has started offering trading and storing services to registered investment advisors (RIAs). The firm partnered with San Francisco-based crypto investing platform Blockchange to that end.

The partnership will allow RIAs to manage cryptoassets within their portfolios. Their first client is said to be Quantum Capital Management, a wealth management firm with over $125 million in assets under management.

Quantum’s CIO, Howard Aschwald, was quoted as saying:

“The risk-adjusted returns and growth potential of digital assets are too significant to ignore, and we consider a small allocation important to fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to clients.”

Aschwald further added that Quantum reviewed several other options before choosing the Blockchain-Gemini solution.

Bitfinex Hackers Seemingly Pass On $400 Million Reward, Move $5.6 Million

The hackers who managed to steal around 120,000 BTC from crypto exchange Bitfinex back in 2016 have once again started moving the stolen funds, with Whale Alert recording 473.3 bitcoin moving into an unknown wallet.

The funds were split into several wallets, with the majority of the funds, 467 BTC worth over $5.6 million, sitting on a single wallet. The hackers have been rather active in the last few months, moving $4 million in June, and $250,000 in late August. Last June, they moved about $2 million as well.

These movements come shortly after Bitfinex revealed it was willing to negotiate with the hackers, offering 5% of the recovered funds to any entity that got them in touch with them, and 25% to the hackers themselves for working with them to resolve the matter. As BTC appreciated since 2016, the funds are now worth over $1.4 billion, which means the rewards Bitfinex would offer could go over $400 million.

Analysts speculate the hackers will now move funds to several wallets, to then move them into exchanges that do not use know-your-customer (KYC) checks in a bid to launder the funds.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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