Germany’s Federal Criminal Police have seized the infrastructure of 47 Russian-language no-KYC cryptocurrency exchanges.
The website announcing the action (called “Operation Final Exchange”) states: “We have found their servers and seized them – development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data – and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses
Our search for traces begins. See you soon“.
It is being reported that the seizures, while certainly targeting a range of financial crimes, were also driven by the use of these exchanges as a means of circumventing sanctions, particularly by designated Russian banks.
It is likely that this Operation Final Exchange will generate substantive financial intelligence and further enforcement actions.