{"id":63005,"date":"2022-03-17T09:01:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T09:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=63005"},"modified":"2022-03-17T09:01:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T09:01:02","slug":"elliptic-identifies-several-hundred-thousand-crypto-addresses-tied-to-russia-based-sanctioned-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=63005","title":{"rendered":"Elliptic Identifies \u2018Several Hundred Thousand Crypto Addresses\u2019 Tied to Russia-Based Sanctioned Actors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/hopsss.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, blockchain surveillance companies have discussed and implemented ways to combat sanctioned countries from using digital assets. Last week, Chainalysis revealed screening tools for crypto firms that aim to comply with international sanctions. On Monday, the CEO of Elliptic published a blog post describing the company\u2019s work to combat sanction evasion. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Elliptic CEO Speaks on the Company\u2019s \u2018Work to Combat Sanction Evasions in Crypto\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>This week, Simone Maini, the chief executive officer of the blockchain surveillance firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elliptic.co\/\">Elliptic,<\/a> published a blog post concerning how the company deals with sanction evasions tethered to crypto assets. Maini\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elliptic.co\/blog\/work-to-combat-sanctions-evasion-in-crypto\">blog post<\/a> stresses that \u201cthe war in Ukraine has demonstrated that powerful technologies such as cryptocurrency can be used in both positive and negative ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Elliptic CEO details how funds were raised for the Ukrainian government and other Ukraine-based NGOs. On the other hand, Maini\u2019s blog post notes that digital assets have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elliptic.co\/blog\/ukrainians-turn-to-bitcoin-to-crowdfund-the-fight-against-russia\">used<\/a> by Russian-backed forces. The Elliptic executive adds:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There is also the real risk of Russia using crypto assets to circumvent sanctions through state-sponsored cybercrime, concealment of wealth, and even crypto mining.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Maini explains that Elliptic has \u201credoubled\u201d its efforts to help the fintech industry \u201cprevent sanctions evasion by Russia.\u201d So far, Elliptic has managed to identify over 400 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that accept rubles for digital currency trades.<\/p>\n<h2>Elliptic \u2018Links 15 Million Crypto Addresses\u2019 to Russian Criminal Activity, \u2018Several Hundred Thousand Crypto Addresses\u2019 Linked to Sanctioned Russian Actors<\/h2>\n<p>Moreover, the firm has \u201cdirectly linked more than 15 million crypto addresses to criminal activity with a nexus in Russia.\u201d On top of all that, Elliptic has managed to flag a great number of cryptocurrency addresses that are allegedly tied to sanctioned Russians. The Elliptic CEO states:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We have identified several hundred thousand crypto addresses linked to Russia-based sanctioned actors. This goes beyond those included in sanctions lists to include other addresses that we have been able to associate with these actors through our own analysis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At the time of writing, the Russian ruble is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocompare.com\/coins\/btc\/analysis\/USD\">23rd<\/a> most-used trading pair against the crypto asset <a href=\"https:\/\/markets.bitcoin.com\/crypto\/BTC\/\">bitcoin (BTC)<\/a>, but against <a href=\"https:\/\/markets.bitcoin.com\/crypto\/USDT\/\">tether (USDT)<\/a>, the ruble represents <a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/markets.bitcoin.com\/crypto\/USDT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USDT<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocompare.com\/coins\/usdt\/analysis\/USD\">15th<\/a> most-used trading pair. In addition to Elliptic, Chainalysis <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/chainalysis-launches-screening-tools-designed-to-prevent-sanctions-evasion\/\">revealed<\/a> five days ago that the blockchain surveillance firm was launching two tools to help crypto companies combat sanction evading entities.<\/p>\n<h2>Blockchain Surveillance Firm Is \u2018Actively Investigating Crypto Asset Wallets\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Furthermore, in a recent blog post published during the first week of March, the popular crypto exchange Coinbase <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/coinbase-blacklists-over-25000-crypto-addresses-tied-to-russian-individuals-and-entities\/\">disclosed<\/a> it had blacklisted more than 25,000 crypto addresses tied to Russian individuals or entities. Elliptic\u2019s announcement stemming from the CEO\u2019s blog post on Monday, highlights that not only did the company flag several hundred thousand crypto addresses, it is also monitoring crypto asset wallets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are actively investigating crypto asset wallets believed to be linked to Russian officials and oligarchs subject to sanctions,\u201d Elliptic\u2019s CEO Maini concluded. \u201cWe are collaborating with government agencies and other organizations to ensure that those responsible for enabling the invasion of Ukraine cannot use crypto assets to hide their wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What do you think about the Elliptic CEO\u2019s blog post about the company flagging several hundred thousand crypto addresses tied to Russia-based sanctioned actors? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, blockchain surveillance companies have discussed and implemented ways to combat sanctioned countries from using digital assets. Last week, Chainalysis revealed screening tools for crypto firms that aim to comply with international sanctions. On Monday, the CEO of Elliptic published a blog post describing the company\u2019s work to combat sanction evasion. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}