According to media reports, Bitzlato users have been able to partially withdraw bitcoin funds from the dismantled cryptocurrency exchange. The Russian-linked trading platform was targeted by Western law enforcement agencies, who seized its server infrastructure in France in January.
Bitzlato customers can withdraw up to 50% of their bitcoins on the exchange
Users of Bitzlato’s web portal and app can now withdraw some of the funds they held on the crypto exchange, which was busted by French and US authorities in mid-January. Since Monday, its customers have had access to half of their Bitcoin (BTC
Accountholders can withdraw up to 50% of their bitcoins, a representative of Bitzlato told Russian-language crypto news outlet Forklog. The minimum withdrawal amount is 0.001BTCand the fee is 0.0003BTC, the report detailed.
Withdrawals can be ordered via Telegram bot, the article explains, and users must provide the email address of their Bitzlato account. Once authenticated, the code needed to complete the money transfer is generated and sent to their mailbox.
The Hong Kong-registered exchange was dismantled based on allegations that it had processed more than $1 billion in illicit funds, equivalent to $700 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice,Europol.
Dirty Money is allegedly linked to a variety of criminal acts and actors, including Hydra, the former largest darknet marketplace, which was shut down by Germany in April, and Finiko, Russia’s largest crypto pyramid scheme.
Bitzlato co-founder and majority owner Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian living in China, was arrested in Miami; four more members of Bitzlato’s team were detained in Europe; another co-founder Anton Shkurenko, was interrogated and released in Russia.
In a Youtube interview, Shkurenko had announced plans to move the exchange to Russia and resume operations there. He also promised to partially restore withdrawals despite French law enforcement seizing the platform’s hot wallet.
According to a survey of about 3,300 people on Bitzlato’s news channel on Telegram, 30% of users have withdrawn their funds without problems, 3% experienced a brief asset freeze, another 4% of funds are still blocked, 12% have yet to decide how to withdraw have not decided, and more than half of those polled intend to wait for the platform’s peer-to-peer market to reopen.
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