Bitzlato
A crypto exchange that U.S. and EU authorities say laundered roughly $700M+ of illicit funds, acting as a counterparty for the Hydra darknet market and ransomware crews. Its infrastructure was seized in January 2023; founder Anatoly Legkodymov pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Also known as: Bitzlato
Summary
Bitzlato was a Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, processed more than $700 million in illicit funds and marketed its lack of identity checks to attract criminal users. [1][2]
Takedown
In January 2023, U.S., French, Spanish, Portuguese, Cypriot, and Europol authorities seized Bitzlato's infrastructure and cryptocurrency, and Treasury's FinCEN designated it a "primary money-laundering concern." The exchange suspended operations the day after founder Anatoly Legkodymov's arrest in Miami. [1][2]
Illicit activity
Prosecutors said Bitzlato served as a counterparty for the now-defunct Hydra darknet marketplace and processed funds for ransomware operators. Europol estimated the platform converted assets totaling roughly €1 billion. [2]
Outcome
In December 2023, Legkodymov pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, agreed to dissolve Bitzlato, and relinquished claims to about $23 million in seized assets. In July 2024 he was sentenced to time served (18 months). [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
People & entities involved
Sources (2)
See also
Gala Games exploitTokensOn May 20, 2024 an attacker abused a privileged minter account on the GALA token contract to mint 5 billion GALA (≈$200M+ nominal) and dumped ~600M of them for ~$22M of ETH before Gala froze the address. Gala Games called it an internal access-control failure; the attacker later returned the ~$22M.
HEX / PulseChain (Richard Heart)ProjectsCrypto projects (HEX, PulseChain, PulseX) created by Richard Heart (Richard Schueler). In July 2023 the U.S. SEC sued him for offering unregistered securities that raised $1B+ and for allegedly misappropriating ~$12M for luxury goods (including a 555-carat diamond). A court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of U.S. jurisdiction; there was no finding of wrongdoing and Heart denies the allegations.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
