Arrested cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato plans to restart

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato plans to resume operations and even allow users to partially withdraw bitcoins. This was announced by the exchange’s co-founder Anton Shkurenko.

«We will allow withdrawing 50% of user assets in Cryptocurrencies held on Bitzlato wallets on the same day we launch. Therest of the cryptocurrencies can be withdrawn some time after the launch,» he said.

According to Shkurenko, as part of the investigation, the French prosecutor’s office seized the platform’s hot wallet, which contained «about 35% of users' funds in cryptocurrencies.» He did not name the specific amount of all assets, citing changes in exchange rates. At the same time, the Bitzlato manager denied the information that the exchange has assets worth € 1 billion.

«The company has never had money in this equivalent, especially on hot wallets. We have been very responsible in keeping our users' funds safe, so it would have been impossible to seize such an amount of money,» Shkurenko said.

He also released the names of four previously detained employees of the company. In addition to Bitzlato founder Anatoly Legkodymov, law enforcement officers captured former executive director Mikhail Lunev, marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko, Monolithos DAO implementation contractor Pavel Lerner, and system administrator Konstantin (no surname). Shkurenko clarified that the sysadmin has already been released on bail and is in Cyprus on his own recognizance.

As a reminder, on January 23, representatives of Europol announced the confiscation of $ 19.5 million from the Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange. In addition, law enforcement officers searched eight private homes of top managers and froze more than 100 accounts totaling $ 50 million. It has also recently become known that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance was a counterparty of Bitzlato. For Russians, Binance laundered about $ 346 million in BTC.