On March 23, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) updated its Know Your Customer (KYC) guidance on money services businesses (MSBs) and foreign money services businesses (FMSBs). FINTRAC classifies Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) as MSBs, meaning they too must comply…
The market volatility created last week as Redditors from r/wallstreetbets banded together to buy stock in GameStop (GME), AMC (AMC), and Bed, Bath, and Beyond (BBBY) through the Robinhood app spilled over into the cryptocurrency world when Dogecoin, a token…
Stefan Thomas is two failed password attempts away from losing the private keys to $220 million worth of bitcoin forever. This is because Thomas holds the private keys to his bitcoin wallet in an IronKey. "The World’s Most Secure Flash…
In a December 9 CipherTrace-ACFCS Webinar on “How Cryptocurrency Intelligence Tipped the Scales in 2020 Sanctions Evasion,” over 500 attendees from various Financial Institutions were asked if they felt confident detecting cryptocurrency related payments flowing through their institutions and/or investigations.…
The criminal environment of darknet markets is extremely turbulent. Numerous darknet markets are launched every year and just as many are constantly exiting, being seized, or otherwise going defunct. Despite this barrage, CipherTrace has noted more dark markets online than…
On October 1, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of four BitMEX executives, charging the group with violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and conspiring to violate the BSA by "willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) program." On the…
I would like to address the issue of the privacy of cryptocurrency transactions, and the role of cryptocurrency tracing companies in helping the world of crypto become safer, more widespread, and more legitimate, while still preserving the privacy of individuals.…
If you travel a lot – especially during January 2020, which was National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month – you likely saw ads exhorting you to look out for evidence of human trafficking and report what you see to…
Some in the cryptocurrency community were caught off guard when the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), recently endorsed much tougher guidelines for monitoring and transferring virtual assets. Its “Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets…
SANCTIONS UPDATE: On August 21, 2019, the following individuals and their associated digital currency addresses have been added to OFAC's SDN List under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. YAN, Xiaobing (Chinese Traditional: 顏曉兵; Chinese Simplified: 颜晓兵) (a.k.a. "YAN, Steven"; a.k.a. "ZHOU,…