Criminals were found to have moved at least $2.8 billion worth of bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges last year, with most of the funds flowing to Binance and Huobi, despite the platforms’ strict KYC requirements.

Experts at the United Nations are warning people against attending a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea, as attending the event is likely to be seen as a violation of international sanctions.

Venezuela is still pushing its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro, in an effort to boost users. The government has now declared flights must use it to pay for fuel.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Criminals Moved at Least $2.8 Billion Worth of Bitcoin to Exchanges Last Year
• UN Experts Warn against Attending North Korean Cryptocurrency Conference
• Venezuela’s Government Declared All Flights Must Use Its Preto to Pay for Fuel

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $8,663.08 (0.84%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $2.64 billion. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $160.70 (-2.51%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $617.14 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,970.75 (-3.07 %).

Criminals Moved at Least $2.8 Billion Worth of Bitcoin to Exchanges Last Year

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis criminals moved at least $2.8 billion worth of bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges last year, with most of the funds going to either Binance or Huobi, despite the platforms’ strict know-your-customer (KYC) checks.

Chainalysis wrote in a report:

“While exchanges have always been a popular off-ramp for illicit cryptocurrency, they’ve taken in a steadily growing share since the beginning of 2019. Over the course of the entire year, we traced $2.8 billion in Bitcoin that moved from criminal entities to exchanges.”

In the Chainalysis 2020 Crypto Crime Report, the firm notes that 27.5% of the $2.8 billion in BTC it traced went to Binance, while 24.7% went to Huobi. It found that most of the illicit BTC was sent to a small number of accounts. Specifically, 810 accounts received over $819 million worth of bitcoin from criminals.

The majority of the funds were reportedly moved via over-the-counter (OTC) brokers and, overall, just over 300,000 individual accounts at Binance and Huobi received BTC from criminals sources last year.

Chainalysis pointed out that OTC desks have lower KYC requirements. Those that are laundering firms for criminals Chainalysis called the “Rogue 100” and found the group has a large impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, even though last year’s numbers were inflated by PlusToken. The report adds:

“Overall, the funds the Rogue 100 receive can account for as much as 1% of all Bitcoin activity in a given month.”

In a statement, Binance’s chief compliance officer Samuel Lim said the exchange is committed to “cleaning up financial crime in crypto and improving the health of our industry.”

UN Experts Warn against Attending North Korean Cryptocurrency Conference

Sanctions experts from the United Nations are warning people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference that’s set to be held in North Korea next month, as attending is likely to be seen as a violation of international sanctions.

According to a confidential report due to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council later this month, North Korea’s first blockchain and cryptocurrency conference held in April of last year saw over 80 organizations participate, and “included explicit discussions of cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion and money laundering.”

A British government spokesman who spoke under the condition of anonymity was quoted as saying:

“Supporting the DPRK’s [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s] use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, risks violating the Security Council’s resolutions because it would unavoidably increase the DPRK’s ability to subvert sanctions and generate revenue for its weapons programs.”

Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith was formally charged for attending last year’s conference in North Korea, with authorities accusing him of providing the country with services without U.S. approval.

Venezuela’s Government Declared All Flights Must Use Its Preto to Pay for Fuel

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared that all flights going out of the country must use its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, to pay for fuel. This as its state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is to only accept petro payments for fuel sold to airlines.

In his annual speech to the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly, Maduro said:

"I decree the sale of all fuel sold by the PDVSA for planes operating international routes be made in petros from now on."

It’s unclear whether the rule only applies to Venezuelan airlines or to all carriers, or whether it only applies to the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela’s capital. To pay for fuel, the affected airlines will reportedly be able to use a PetroCard that’ll convert international currencies into the oil-backed cryptocurrency.

In his speech, Maduro added that government authorities are only going to accept petro payments for document service fees. The move is the latest in a series of attempts the Venezuelan government has made to push the petro’s use.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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