Crime

Prosecutors investigating the man behind the US$37 billion wipeout of the Terra-LUNA cryptocurrency project are raising the stakes to get him back to South Korea.

Argentina’s tax collection agency (AFIP) has concluded its first-ever operations against illegal and “clandestine” crypto mining farms operating within the country, the agency announced last week. See related article: Crypto miners should disclose energy data, US lawmakers say Fast facts The AFIP conducted four raids on crypto farms that were under the guise of other […]

The Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery Network (CFAAR), which calls itself the first global network of its kind, has launched a Hong Kong-based chapter in collaboration with seven local finance, law, and crypto regulation experts.  See related article: Australia establishes federal crypto police unit Fast facts The Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery network began in […]

A South Korean man in his 30s was recently sentenced to four years in prison after producing and storing sexually exploitative content involving minors he lured on the metaverse. See related article: South Korea struggles to prevent sexual harassment of minors in the metaverse Fast facts The man, whose identity was not made public, had […]

Over US$30 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korea-linked hackers has been seized by law enforcement, with the help of crypto organizations like the Chainalysis Crypto Incident Response Team. See related article: North Korea behind Ronin hack: US Fast facts This marks the first time that digital assets stolen from North Korean hacking groups […]

Crypto entrepreneur Mark Hopkins, also known as Doctor Bitcoin” or “Rizzn”, claimed on Twitter that he has been sentenced to six to 15 months in federal prison for allegedly participating in peer-to-peer Bitcoin sales without a federal license. See related article: Tornado Cash arrest heralds storm season for crypto mixers Fast facts P2P sale of […]

Indian police in the state of Maharashtra have arrested a man on charges of cheating 1,441 investors in a fake cryptocurrency scam, according to a local media report.  See related article: Tax authorities recover US$9M from India’s biggest crypto exchanges Fast facts The scam may be in excess of 2.5 billion rupees (US$31.2 million) and […]

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have set up a crypto crime unit that will trace and seize illicit cryptocurrency linked to money laundering and other criminal activity, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported Monday. See related article: Ukraine National Police takes down crypto fraud cybercrime group Fast facts Launched in August, the unit will help […]

The National Police of Ukraine (NPU) said on Tuesday it took down a network of call centers targeting Ukrainian and European Union citizens, who have already been duped by crypto scams. See related article: Ukraine seizes funds from crypto wallet funding Russian forces Fast facts According to NPU’s official announcement, the cybercrime network was disguised […]

Alleged Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, was accused of facilitating money laundering through the now-sanctioned crypto mixer. Pertsev will stay in jail for at least another 90 days, a judge in the Netherlands ruled on Wednesday. The developer has not been officially charged with any crime. See related article: Tornado Cash arrest heralds storm season […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Tornado Cash, mixer crash. Cardano’s Vasil vulnerabilities. Canaan earnings buoy expansion plans.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) seized and blocked a cryptocurrency wallet used to fund the Russian military campaign in the country. The agency is working on tracking the funds and transferring them under Ukrainian jurisdiction, according to the SSU. See related article: Vitalik Buterin says he used Tornado Cash to donate to Ukraine Fast […]

Non-fungible token (NFT) platform SudoRare has allegedly run off with US$815,000 in user funds and deleted its social media accounts, raising alarms over investor protection.  See related article: Klaytn chief says reducing ‘human elements’ can prevent hacks Fast facts According to PeckShield Inc., a blockchain security and data analytics company, SudoRare took off with 519 […]

Decentralized exchange Uniswap has appeared to block 253 wallet addresses linked to illicit financial activities on its front end after the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash earlier this month. See related article: Largest Ether mining pool Ethermine stops processing Tornado Cash transactions Fast facts DeFi platform Yearn developer Banteg tweeted on Saturday that […]

CME prepares to launch ETH options as the merge gets closer, Meanwhile, a Chainalysis says crypto scams are down.

Report by Chainalysis says both use cases fell in dollar terms in first half of year and while legitimate usage by value far exceeds criminal, illicit activities fell by a much narrower margin.The report attempts to explain why.

Criminal activity in cryptocurrency was more resilient than legitimate uses despite the downturn in the crypto market in 2022, according to a new report by blockchain data aggregation firm Chainalysis. See related article: Chainalysis says $2 bln stolen in cross-chain bridge hacks this year, more expected Fast facts Illicit transaction volumes are down just 15% […]

Amid debate over the U.S. Treasury Department’s banning of the crypto mixer, the Ethereum cofounder said he used the service to protect recipients.

Crypto trading platform ZB.com, which halted withdrawals on Tuesday citing maintenance, may have been hacked to the tune of US$4.8 million, blockchain analytics firm PeckShield said on Wednesday. See related article: Nomad Bridge alerts law enforcement amid US$200 mln attack Fast facts According to PeckShield, hackers drained 21 different tokens from ZB.com, including USDT, USDC, […]

A stolen painting may be lost forever, but a fraudulent Bitcoin transaction — with these legal strategies and tracing tools — can lead right to the criminal.

An employee on the foreign exchange team of South Korea’s BNK Busan Bank allegedly embezzled 1.48 billion Korean won (US$1.1 million) in customer funds to invest in Bitcoin, local media reported. See related article: Illegal foreign exchange trading with Bitcoin ‘Kimchi Premium’ probed in S.Korea Fast facts The employee, whose name was not released, reportedly […]

Solana-based decentralized finance protocol Nirvana Finance was exploited in a flash loan attack for US$3.49 million on July 28, the firm announced in a Twitter post, causing its tokens to topple by more than 80%. See related article: C.R.E.A.M. Finance suffers $28M flash loan hack Fast facts Using flash loans on lending protocol Solend, the […]

Harmony Protocol announced on Wednesday a reimbursement plan for wallets affected by the US$100 million hack on its Horizon cross-chain bridge last month, which was met by mostly negative feedback. See related article: North Korea said to be responsible for Harmony Horizon hack Fast facts The reimbursement will be with Harmony’s ONE cryptocurrency, distributed monthly […]

A new report by Chainalysis shows that sanctioned actors, especially in North Korea and Russia, are sending record sums to crypto mixers.

Prosecutors in South Korea are reportedly investigating foreign remittances of over 2 trillion Korean won (US$1.5 billion) at the country’s banks on suspicions of money laundering by crypto speculators. See related article: US$1.5B South Korean ‘kimchi premium’ crypto scheme prompts 33 arrests Fast facts The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office is examining foreign exchange transactions […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged in a civil suit filed last week that nine of the 25 crypto assets traded in the first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading case were securities and that leaking confidential information, therefore, amounted to securities fraud.  See related article: Former Coinbase manager arrested on insider trading charges Fast facts […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, on allegations of wire fraud in a first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading scheme, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.  See related article: Former OpenSea employee arrested amid insider trading allegations Fast facts The Wahi brothers are […]

The U.S. Justice Department seized about US$500,000 from North Korea-backed hackers using ransomware, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced on Tuesday. See related article: US Treasury says prioritize sanctioning North Korea for crypto hacking Fast facts Hackers demanded Bitcoin ransom from Kansas and Colorado medical providers that were attacked by a never-before-seen ransomware strain called […]

South Korea’s Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon met with U.S. investigative agencies in New York on Tuesday amid the countries’ separate investigations into Terra and its cofounder Do Kwon. See related article: South Korean authorities cite LUNA debacle to call for speedier crypto oversight Fast facts The minister met with Andrea M. Griswold, co-chief of the […]

Cryptocurrencies were listed for the first time as a means to launder and transfer money related to the drug trade by the China Ministry of Public Security on Thursday. See related article: China explores ways to classify cryptocurrency crimes Fast facts See related article: The SEC is building a SWAT team to combat crypto crime

A perceived failure to address increasing fraud in the NFT industry prompts calls for regulation and the adoption of a more centralized approach to weed out bad actors.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Binance BNB slips amid allegations. STEPN marches through attacks. Is China’s slowdown straining crypto prices?

Falling prices, an imploding stablecoin, and more reports of hacks have occupied the cryptocurrency headlines in recent weeks, so it’s perhaps no surprise that regulators have noticed and they intend to do something about it.

Binance has fought back on a Reuters investigation that accused the crypto exchange of serving as a conduit for at least US$2.3 billion worth of illicit funds, calling the report a “breathless pearl clutching” piece. See related article: SEC probes Binance’s BNB for initial coin offering in 2017: report Fast facts “We’re aware of Angus […]

A prosecutor in Beijing has reportedly approved the arrest of a director of a Shanghai-listed Chinese big data company on suspicion of misappropriating the firm’s funds to mine Bitcoin, exchange filings showed. See related article: Beijing banned crypto mining, so China miners went underground Fast facts Li Qunnan, a director of the board of Zhongchang […]

South Korean police said Wednesday they arrested a man in his 30s on fraud charges for allegedly stealing about US$658,000 in cryptocurrencies based on personal data leaked on local social media platform Naver Band. See related article: Guilty verdicts handed down in S.Korea’s biggest crypto scam Fast facts The man allegedly stole cryptocurrencies from 90 […]

The Twitter account of non-fungible token (NFT) artist Mike Winkelmann, widely known as Beeple, was briefly hacked on Sunday and used to promote a phishing scam to drain over US$72,000 from Ether wallets of victims.   See related article: Twitter hacker takes over verified accounts to promote fake Azuki NFT drop Fast facts The hacker shared […]

Five South Korean Terra (LUNA) investors with an accumulated loss of around 1.4 billion Korean won (US$1.1 million) represented by local law firm LKB & Partners have filed a complaint against Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon and co-founder Shin Hyun-seung for two charges including fraud, according to local media reports. See related article: Knock, knock […]

The wife of the CEO of Terraform Labs sought protection after an unidentified individual visited their home in South Korea, local police told Forkast.

Hong Kong police announced on Tuesday the arrest of a 24-year-old who is suspected of stealing HK$1.5 million (US$191,076) in cryptocurrencies in a physical cash-to-crypto transaction.  See related article: Hong Kong sees high engagement with crypto, Visa research shows Fast facts The police labeled the rare on-site cryptocurrency theft as a serious crime punishable by […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it is expanding its crypto asset enforcement team by adding 20 positions, in a move to bolster its efforts to combat cybercrime associated with cryptocurrency. See related article: Peirce dissents from SEC’s US$100M BlockFi settlement Fast facts The SEC on Tuesday said that its staff strength in a […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has charged Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Benos and U.K. citizen Christopher Emms with allegedly assisting former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith in presenting the uses of crypto to avoid U.S. sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). See related article: Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith gets […]

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of the Treasury allege North Korea’s Lazarus Group and APT38 were responsible for stealing cryptocurrencies worth about US$620 million off the Ethereum sidechain Ronin. See related article: Axie Infinity blockchain Ronin hacked for over $600M Fast facts The hack was perpetrated by the Democratic People’s […]

Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith was sentenced to prison and fined US$100,000 for violating international sanctions against North Korea by speaking at a cryptocurrency conference in the Hermit Kingdom in April 2019. See related article: North Korea hacked US$400M of crypto in 2021, says Chainalysis Fast facts At the conference, Griffith explained blockchain technology’s use […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned what it called “the world’s largest and most prominent darknet market” based in Russia and a cryptocurrency exchange associated with ransomware activities. See related article: Russian-linked strains lead crypto ransomware in 2021: Chainalysis Fast facts The Treasury Department Tuesday sanctioned Hydra Market, alleging it offered a marketplace for […]

Aided by crypto like Monero, ransomware crimes are on the rise globally, writes Srinivas Mukkamala of Ivanti. Android users are especially vulnerable.

The Japanese trustee for Mt. Gox is likely to distribute the remaining trove of Bitcoins held by the defunct cryptocurrency exchange sooner than later, former CEO Mark Karpeles tells Jake Adelstein in an exclusive interview for Forkast.

China’s Supreme Court specified cryptocurrency trading as a means of illegal fundraising in its latest judicial interpretation of criminal law released on Thursday, the first time in the country’s history.  See related article: Court in China says trading in cryptocurrency ‘not protected by law’ Fast facts A judicial interpretation is the Supreme People’s Court’s official […]

Indian authorities arrested 11 individuals over the weekend, connected with a crypto scam case that allegedly used the allure of high gains to dupe 2,000 investors out of US$5.4 million (INR 400 million), local media reported.  Fast facts Four of the accused were apprehended on Saturday after being on the run since March last year, […]

While the government cultivates the booming metaverse industry, experts say laws fail to protect youth from abuse within virtual and digital realms.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Super Bowl score for digital asset exchanges. CryptoPunks holders face copyright conundrum. Hong Kong warns of NFT risks.

Ransomware revenue in crypto in 2021 has been traced to strains connected to Russia with most of the extorted funds laundered through services that primarily cater to Russian users, blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis reported. Fast facts Around 74% of the over US$400 million worth of crypto ransomware revenue last year was directed to strains that […]

Seven executives of scam crypto exchange V Global were found guilty on Friday and sentenced to jail time — but it might not be enough to console victims.

Ransomware payments in crypto tallied higher than US$602 million in 2021, according to blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, with average payments recording US$118,000, or 34% higher than the 2020 average.  Fast facts

The two most popular NFT-related crimes, money laundering and wash trading, resulted in illicit profits of US$10 million in 2021, according to a report released Wednesday by blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. Fast facts While the US$10 million of global NFT criminal activity is relatively small, Chainalysis reported a spike in the use of illicit funds […]

South Korea’s media regulation agency has launched a council to discuss user protection on the metaverse, including the issue of sexual harassment targeting minors. Fast facts The council, under the Korea Communications Commission, consists of 30 professionals in media, law, technology and industrial management, and will discuss issues in the metaverse such as violence, sexual […]

The amount of cryptocurrency used in money laundering activities increased 30% in 2021 compared to the year before, but represents a smaller portion of total transactions, according to an annual crypto money laundering report by Chainalysis, a blockchain data analytics firm.  Fast facts Cybercriminals laundered US$8.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency last year, with the total […]

South Korean police have provided global police agency Interpol with information on a crypto-related voice phishing case after receiving a purple notice on two international crimes that victimized locals, according to local media reports. Fast facts Last May, an individual was reported to be disguised as a public prosecutor to convince a victim to buy […]

e-CNY transactions surge in China, meanwhile Fusang IPO ‘s get a green light

The total number of legal judgments involving crypto-related crime in China slightly dipped in 2021 to 5,137 cases, as the nationwide clampdown continues, according to a research report.  Fast facts China’s legal system published 5,170 judgments in 2020, a significant leap from 3,474 in 2019, Chinese blockchain data tracker Zhongke Lianan found in its report. […]

If 2021 was a breakout year for crypto, this year may mark a similar advance for regulation of the industry, says Caroline Malcolm, Chainalysis’ new policy chief.

State-backed hackers from North Korea stole cryptocurrencies worth about US$395 million last year across at least seven cyber attacks, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company. Fast facts Several of the attacks were likely led by Lazarus, a group of hackers believed to be backed by North Korea’s primary intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, […]

A computer database at a supermarket in eastern China is being held hostage by cybercriminals demanding 0.042 Bitcoin, which amounts to US$1,832, according to a Chinese media report. Fast facts

Prosecutors in South Korea are demanding life sentences for seven former executives of a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange who were charged with defrauding investors of just under US$1.9 billion. The executives are not yet convicted, and the trial judge will deliver a verdict on Feb. 11. Fast facts The executives of V Global allegedly took about […]

The Enforcement Directorate in India seized assets of a businessman worth around US$4.9 million in a money laundering case involving a crypto scam, according to a press release on Monday.  Fast facts Nishad K and his associates allegedly perpetrated a crypto scam in which some 900 investors were cheated out of approximately US$162.4 million. The […]

The current technologies in use do little to deter crypto money laundering, writes Dr. Mark van Staalduinen. What can nations do about this?

Cryptocurrency is fueling crimes like malicious mining and ransomware attacks, writes Andrew Brandt of Sophos. What can a company do to protect itself?

Who in the crypto world deserves Santa love this year, and whose chimney should be snubbed? The elves at Forkast.News help the big man with his list.

Blockchain gaming studio Vulcan Forged was hacked on Tuesday and 4.5 million PYR, the platform’s native token, was stolen, the company announced on Twitter. Fast facts Vulcan Forged also runs a decentralized exchange and a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. The attacker gained the private keys to 96 wallets and proceeded to empty them, making off […]

A crypto investor in Hong Kong was rescued six days after being kidnapped earlier this month when he tried to meet a buyer offline who promised to purchase his Tether tokens.

It’s a red light for those who bought the controversial token inspired by the Netflix mega-series Squid Game, as its developers appear to have cashed out their investments, leaving SQUID’s price to plunge 99.99%.

Behind this year’s giddy markets, evil and tragedies abound. Just in time for Halloween, Forkast.News shakes out the skeletons in crypto’s closet.