Bitzlato co-founder arrested for allegedly laundering over $700 million

Bitzlato plays a critical role in facilitating transactions for the Conti ransomware group and other global ransomware actors, including actors that operate out of Russia. As a result, FinCEN assesses that Bitzlato serves as a VASP that ultimately enables the profitability of ransomware attacks and, at least in the case of Conti, advances the political and economic destabilization interests of the Government of Russia.

Comparative analysis of Bitzlato to a large U.S.-registered CVC exchanger indicates that less than .01 percent of the U.S. exchanger’s transactions were attributed to darknet markets, whereas 6 to 8 percent of Bitzlato’s transactions were attributed to the Hydra darknet market alone.