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Ukraine Seizes Assets From OTC Crypto Brokers for Working With Russians
The Prosecutor General's office said it confiscated $1.7 million in fiat and almost a ton of silver.
Updated May 11, 2023, 3:54 p.m. Published Jul 13, 2022, 4:33 p.m.
Ukrainian prosecutors said they have seized a wealth of assets belonging to over-the-counter (OTC) brokers who illegally facilitated cryptocurrency purchases for users from Russia and Russia-occupied territories.
The clients of those dealers were able "to convert cash and non-cash funds into cryptocurrency, without paying taxes," the Prosecutor General's office announced Tuesday in a Ukrainian-language press release that received little notice in the West.
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It's not clear when the trades happened or whether it was before or after Russia started a war in Ukraine this winter.
The authorities seized 850,000 euros, US$470,000 and 460,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (amounting to about $1.67 million in total); 830 kilograms of silver; six pieces of land; and three apartments. All were the proceeds of illegal crypto trades, the Prosecutor General's office said. The assets, worth around $3.39 million combined, were handed over to Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency, which is similar to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Local police are investigating fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges against unnamed persons, prosecutors said.
The Prosecutor General's Office did not immediately answer a request for further comment.
Read more: Crypto Becomes Lifeline for Russian Emigrés Opposing Putin’s War in Ukraine
Last year, Ukrainian law enforcement reported seizing similar amounts of money from crypto OTCs that allegedly served Russians and residents of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republic, Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian-backed paramilitary units since 2014.
On April 28, 2021, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) reported "blocking" the work of a group that facilitated crypto trades using Russian payment systems, which is illegal in Ukraine. The SSU reported seizing over 800 kilograms of silver and 43 million of Ukrainian hryvnias ($1.46 million), computers, phones, hard drives and "documents confirming the deals."
The group under investigation processed over 240 million Ukrainian hryvnias ($8.12 million), 65 million ($2.2 million) of which were related to money laundering, the 2021 announcement said.
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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- Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said she is negotiating with the White House on behalf of Senate Democrats trying to insert ethics provisions into Congress' market structure legislation.
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