Less than two weeks after the application authorities of the International Law withdrew it, Garantex, an exchange of popular Russian cryptography between the ransomware gangs and the oligarchs that evade sanctions, supposedly has already risen from the ashes, changing as Grinex.
According to a new report by the Swiss Blockchain Global Ledger Analytical Firm, a large amount of data inside and outside the chain indicates that Grinex is a direct successor of guarantax. To the certain liquidity of guarantax, including all the guarantorx holdings of a stablecoin backed by Rublo called A7A5, it has already moved to GRINEX controlled wallets.
The CEO of Global Ledger, Lex Fisun, told COINDESK that, in addition to the data in the chain that connect to Garantex to Grinex, there have been numerous indications outside the chain that the two exchanges are intimately connected. Fisun pointed out the rapid growth of Grinex, which he had exceeded $ 40 million in volume in just two weeks, as well as a large number of social networks between the two exchanges.
Although other important Blockchain analysis companies, including TRM laboratories and chain chain, have not yet confirmed the findings of the Global Ledger, the head of National Security Intelligence of the Andrew Fierman chain, told COINDESK that he had seen several indicators that Grinex would probably be the change of guarantor brand.
Fierman pointed out a recent telegram comment by Sergey Mendeleev, one of the original Founders of Garantex, announcing the creation of Grinex and affirming that any similarities between the two exchanges were random, followed by two smiling emojis crying. Both Fierman and Fisun told Coendesk that there were numerous reports from guarantor users who go to the offices in the person of guarantex in Europe and the Middle East and transferred their cryptography from Garantex to Grinex. Both also pointed out the similarities in the user interfaces of the two platforms.
Although the evidence is certainly convincing, Fierman said that until the chain chain completes its Grinex infrastructure review, it cannot definitely validate the precision of the Global Ledger report.
But, if Grinex is, in fact, a brand change of guarantex, it would not be the first time that a sanctioned exchange was refused after a closure. In 2017, American police BTC-E withdrew the exchange of Russian encryption and subsequently renamed Wex. However, Wex did not last long: he closed a year later due to an internal conflict and the fights between his remaining leadership. Similarly, the sanctioned Russian exchange renamed as Chatex, and was subsequently sanctioned again.
The problem with sanctions
The rapid Renaissance of Garantex demonstrates the challenge of sanctions, especially against criminal operations such as non -satisfied exchanges, Darknet markets and ransomware gangs that can simply be transformed to avoid detection.
“The evasion of sanctions will happen,” said Fierson. “Because if you are sanctioned, you will not only accept that you can no longer make financial transactions. You will seek to avoid detection, however, that can be, either creating companies with Shell, creating new cryptographic wallets, and the larger the operation is and the more prominent, the more advanced it will have to be really to work.”
Feirson said that this problem is not exclusive to cryptography, but cryptographic -related sanctions offer the police a unique opportunity to follow the money after the sanctions are implemented.
“The unique aspect of the block chain is that it is transparent and immutable, and what happens when a company closes is much more examined,” said Fierson. “There is much more to examine in the chain. Garantex closes, their holdings are seized, but that does not prevent them from moving other assets. There is the opportunity to monitor what happens with those postal closing funds.”
A network of potential successors type Hydra
Whether Grinex is guarantorx 2.0 or not, there are a number of other Russian cryptographic exchanges not conforming anxious and willing to take their place.
Ari Redbord, head of global policy and government matters in TRM Labs, told Coindesk that it was simply “too early” definitely evaluating the relationship between Grinex and guarantax. “That said, it is clear that other non -satisfied high -risk exchanges will try to fill the emptiness of illicit finance that Garantex left,” he added.
A recent TRM Labs client report appointed several possible successors, including Russian high-risk Russian exchanges Abcex and Keine-Exchange.
Garantex Take Down
Garantex was dismantled by the United States International Police, Germany and Finland in a joint operation earlier this month, which seized its domain and servers.
The Foreign Assets Control Department (OFAC) of the US Treasury.
According to judicial documents, the guarantex clientele also included the piracy team sanctioned by North Korea, the Lázaro Group, which was behind the recent Bybit trick of $ 1.4 billion, as well as the Russian oligarchs who used the service to evade the sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine of Russia.
Two of the Garantex operators, the national and Russian resident of Garantex, Aleksej Besciokov and the Russian citizen and the resident of the United Arab Emirates, Aleksandr Mira Serda, have been accused of conspiracy of money laundering in relation to their work with guarantax. Besciokov was arrested while he was on vacation with his family in India earlier this month, and is expected to be extradited to the United States to face charges.
