In the fourth installment of our series on fintech criminal and political affairs, we’re not just talking about a “gray marketplace,” but about a project that became a prototype for all modern sanctions evasion. We’re talking about the legendary BTC-e exchange and its successor, WEX.
This is the story of how the main tool of international hackers and drug cartels came under direct control of Russian special services, after which $450 million in crypto disappeared from the platform beyond recovery.
BTC-e: The world’s main dark settlement hub
Founded in 2011 by Russians Oleksandr Vinnik and Aleksey Bilyuchenko, BTC-e operated for years as an absolute “offshore without KYC.” The platform deliberately refused any user identification, turning into the main hub for:
Money laundering of ransomware ransoms;
Withdrawal of stolen funds from the looted Japanese exchange Mt. Gox;
Payments for the largest darknet marketplace in Eastern Europe, the “Hydra” marketplace.
In 2017, the operation was halted by the FBI: in Greece, Oleksandr Vinnik was arrested, and the BTC-e servers in the U.S. were seized.
According to U.S. justice, the platform processed more than $9 billion in dirty capital.
WEX relaunch and FSB-backed raiding
After the collapse of BTC-e, the second co-founder, Aleksey Bilyuchenko, decided to revive the exchange under the name WEX in order to “repay users’ debts.” However, the new platform with hundreds of millions of dollars in liquidity was immediately noticed by Russian security services.
The takeover scheme was carried out according to the classic bandit playbook, but at the state level:
Forced transfer: Bilyuchenko was “invited” for talks in Moscow, where, under pressure from law-enforcement officers and threats of imprisonment, he was forced to hand over private keys and databases.
Nominal owner: Dmitry Khavchenko (pseudonym “Moryachok”) was made the formal owner of WEX — a former fighter connected to the Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.
Share of the curators: According to materials from investigations, the direct extraction of keys from Cold wallets was coordinated by employees of the 2nd Directorate of Russia’s FSB.
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Robbery worth $450 million and sanctions transit
In summer 2018, WEX blocked withdrawals for ordinary users. At that time, the exchange’s balances held tens of thousands $BTC , $ETH and stablecoins with a total value of over $450 million.
Blockchain analytics data recorded how assets began to be partially moved to accounts associated with Russian law-enforcement structures, and partly — to gray platforms used to finance proxy groups and bypass international sanctions.
Traders who trusted WEX with funds received the standard response about “technical work,” after which the site permanently ceased to exist. The nominal owner of the “Moryachok” claimed in an interview that “he never saw the money,” and Bilyuchenko himself later ended up under arrest in Russia, when the authorities decided to finally clean up the witnesses.
Conclusions for the market
The BTC-e / WEX case proved a fundamental rule: if a crypto exchange operates in a gray zone and takes pride in the lack of KYC, it exists only until states or special services notice it.
As soon as the capital of a gray platform exceeds the critical threshold, it is either shut down by Western regulators, or forcibly seized by authoritarian regimes for their own shadow settlements. And in both cases, the retail user remains the only party that pays for it with their own money.
🤔 Do you believe in the existence of independent CEX exchanges without KYC in 2026, or is any similar platform by default a trap?
👉 Interested in this article? Then check out the previous materials in our information series on crypto-political crime:
Sports laundry: how crypto scammers and call centers buy football and politicians
Trading in fans’ love: how the Turkish exchange Bitci fooled the world of sports
