Security News > 2024 > March > US sanctions crypto exchanges used by Russian darknet market, banks
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned three cryptocurrency exchanges for working with OFAC-designated Russian dark web markets and banks.
The first, Bitpapa IC FZC LLC, is a peer-to-peer virtual currency exchange that caters to Russian nationals and has facilitated millions of dollars in transactions with two OFAC-designated Russian entities, Hydra Market and Garantex.
Hydra Market was the world's largest darknet market, a Russian dark web platform for selling drugs and money laundering that had a turnover of $1.35 billion in 2020, 19,000 registered seller accounts, and served at least 17 million customers worldwide.
The OFAC has sanctioned Bitpapa, TOEP, and Crypto Explorer for their involvement in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation's economy.
OFAC also designated multiple other Russian fintech companies and their owners for working with OFAC-designated Rosbank, VTB Bank, Sberbank, Sovcombank, and the Central Bank of Russia to help Russian companies and nationals evade sanctions.
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