A frozen grocery store caught fire following a shelling by Russian troops in the village of Kvitneve in the Brovary district on March XNUMX. Source: Twitter/@MVS_UA
“Crypto forensic companies” like Elliptic and Chainalysis seem to be making a name for themselves in the international media, with their blockchain analysis tools apparently allowing them to make key inroads on Western governments to track down Russian scammers using crypto.
Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told Bloomberg that the company gave information about a crypto portfolio “that may be linked to sanctioned Russian officials and oligarchs” to Western officials. The company, and Chainalysis, appear to work with a plurality of government agencies and departments, mostly based in the US.
Robinson asserted that the wallet in question contained "significant holdings of crypto assets."
However, Elliptic hinted that this portfolio may be just the tip of the iceberg, saying it is "actively studying" portfolios it believes are linked to "sanction-compliant Russian oligarchs and officials."
The firm said:
"We work with government agencies and other organizations to ensure that those responsible for the brutal and also illegal invasion of Ukraine cannot use crypto assets to hide their wealth."
Furthermore, in a weblog post, Elliptic director Simone Maini wrote that the company has "identified over four hundred Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), primarily exchanges, where cryptocurrencies can be purchased with rubles."
In addition, he added, the company had "also linked multiple millions of crypto asset addresses" to VASPs, noting that most were unregulated and allowed their users to access their services anonymously.
And the company claimed to have “directly linked more than fifteen million cryptocurrency addresses to criminal activity with a connection to Russia.” This, Elliptic claimed, would allow cryptocurrency dealers to “vet transactions and wallets for exposure to this activity and ensure proceeds cannot be laundered.”
In addition, Maini wrote that his company had "identified multiple hundreds of thousands of crypto addresses linked to Russia-based sanctioned actors," adding that these addresses "go beyond those on sanctions lists" and also include "other addresses we've been able to partner with." these actors through our analysis.
The company seems to appreciate leading the field in creating what it has called "best practices in crypto asset sanctions compliance."
Robinson also asserted that last week's activity in ruble exchanges "three-folded compared to the week preceding the outbreak of war in late February."
He is quoted as saying:
“It is unrealistic that oligarchs can completely avoid sanctions by moving their wealth into cryptocurrencies. Crypto is hugely traceable. Crypto can and will be used to evade sanctions, but it is not a panacea.
He added that “in general, the “level of compliance with sanctions” among crypto service dealers was “very high.”
Earlier this month, Chainalysis, which previously claimed to have developed the ability to anonymize CoinJoin transactions, stated that it would provide a range of its analytics tools for free to crypto platforms that wanted to comply with sanctions requirements.