$40M in Crypto Seized With No Charges, Reason Will Surprise You

$40 million seized from TradeOgre exchange while charges “may follow”: What we know so far
Authorities keep cracking down on privacy coins

Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized cryptocurrency funds of TradeOgre, a niche cryptocurrency exchange operating since 2018. Since there are no filed criminal charges, this might be the first case for Canada’s law enforcers to shut down the crypto service.

$40 million seized from TradeOgre exchange while charges “may follow”: What we know so far

Last week, over 56 million Canadian dollars (CAD), or about $40 million, were seized by Royal Canadian Mounted Police from TradeOgre, an exchange known among privacy coin traders. As per the press release, law enforcers also “dismantled” the crypto exchange for the first time in Canada’s history.

At the same time, the funds were transferred to RCMP crypto wallets with no arrest warrant or court order. As explained by the police, investigators have reason to believe that the majority of funds transacted on TradeOgre came from criminal sources.

Formally, the exchange was shut down with $40 million in BTC and ETH seized for two reasons. First, TradeOgre operated in Canada without being registered with Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a money service business.

Also, the exchange did not require its customers to submit “know-your-customer” documents, making anonymous crypto transfers possible.

The main attraction of this type of platform, which doesn’t require users to identify themselves to make an account, is that it hides the source of funds. This is a common tactic used by criminal organizations that launder money

Thus, this might be one of the first cases of a crypto service being shut down for not implementing KYC checks.

The investigation against the exchange was started in June 2024 after RCMP received a notice from the anti-money-laundering unit of Europol.

Authorities keep cracking down on privacy coins

The law enforcers are analyzing the data seized from TradeOgre and “charges may follow soon,” the statement goes.

For thousands of traders, TradeOgre remained the place to buy and sell privacy-focused coins, largely Monero (XMR).

As covered by U.Today previously, privacy coins are under fire, especially when offered on centralized exchanges. The architecture of these cryptocurrencies prevents them from being tracked by third parties — nobody can check the recipient, volume and other details of transactions with privacy coins.