US feds have dismantled a crypto laundering service that they say helped cybercrooks wash tens of millions of dollars in dirty digital cash, seizing its servers and unsealing charges against an alleged Russian operator. The FBI, working with cops in Europe and a grab bag of state and federal agencies, announced this week that it has taken down the infrastructure behind E-Note, an unlicensed virtual currency exchange accused of acting as a financial rinse cycle for ransomware crews, account takeover gangs, and other online criminals.
At least $21.8 billion in illicit or high-risk crypto has flowed through crosschain swaps, up from $7 billion in 2023, according to estimates by UK-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.