UK Sanctions 3 Crypto Firms Over Russia Ties

The UK's package also named 17 people and firms that import machine tools, electronics and material used in ballistic missiles and drones. The UK sanctioned crypto payment processors Cryptomus and Heleket and Kyrgyzstani exchange TokenSpot on October 8, after blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis linked the services to illicit financial flows and networks associated with Russia’s sanctions evasion. The designations target parts of the infrastructure used to move money through crypto, including payment services that received funds from thousands of illicit counterparties and exchanges connected to a ruble-backed token network. Chainalysis Traces Illicit Funds Through Three Crypto Services In an analysis published alongside the announcement, Chainalysis reported that Cryptomus and Heleket, both operated by Xeltox Enterprises Ltd., had received funds from more than 15,000 distinct illicit counterparties across every criminal category tracked by the firm. In several categories, including scams, sanctioned jurisdictions and terrorist financing, their illicit inflows exceeded those received by all mixing services in its dataset combined. Illicit counterparties linked to the two processor...