Readily available accounts for virtual digital assets are on sale to Russian residents. Meanwhile, this is a common occurrence since money launderers and fraudsters usually adopt such accounts. The continuous growth due to the restrictions imposed by the exchange platforms on users from Russia is attributed to the compliance with sanctions over the continuous war in Ukraine.
According to the Kommersant report, Residents of Russia have been purchasing these accounts regardless of the risks associated with the virtual digital assets, including the dangers that whoever or whatever created them still maintains access after the sale.
Furthermore, reports from Nikolay Chursin from the Positive Technologies information security threat analysis indicate that these accounts are expensive, and the rewards on the dark net markets have doubled since the beginning of last year.
According to an analyst at Kaspersky Digital Footprint intelligence, Peter Mareichev, the number of new advertisements for readily available and verified accounts on several trading platforms accumulated to four hundred by December last year. Efforts to formulate fake data for passing KYC procedures also skyrocketed.
Russia Dives Deep into the Crypto World
Easy login credentials, passwords, and usernames are valued at around fifty dollars, and a fully created wallet comprising of the data with which it was registered, a customer would have to purchase at an average of about three hundred dollars.
Dmitry Bogachev from digital threats Analysis Company Jet Information systems announced that these accounts’ values depend on factors like the date and country of registration and the activity history. He added that older accounts appeared to be more expensive than newly generated wallets.
The chief executive officer of the DeFi banking platform Indefibank, Sergey Mendeleev, reported that there are two types of buyers, Russian residents that do not have a choice as they require an account for daily tasks and those who require accounts for criminal and fraudulent activities.
The director of development at cybersecurity services provider RTK Solar, Igor Sergienko, is persuaded that the request is large because digital asset exchanges have restricted Russian wallets or transactions to Russian bank cards in the previous months.
Russia’s Cryptocurrency Expansion amid Restrictions
Major digital asset service providers, including leading cryptocurrency exchanges, have conformed to financial constraints rolled out by the West in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Binance reported that restricting sanctioned entities and people did not affect all Russians.
According to Forklog, since the end of last year, several Russian investors of Binance have raised concerns about having their wallets blocked without explanation or knowledge. In addition, several users experienced challenges for weeks, plus suspension of withdrawals amongst extended checks.
Binance reported to the crypto news outlet that blocking customers’ accounts and wallets from Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of the Independent States was associated with the case with seized digital assets Bitzlato.
Cyber security experts and analysts reported to the Russian press that the Russian digital asset traders have been on the go, seeking to acquire free accounts for universal trade, as their entree to such platforms is at limited capacity.
In the recent past, the issuing of such accounts on the dark web has improved significantly. Additionally, the distribution of digital asset trading accounts for Russian customers doubled in a year full of restrictions for Russian investors.
