The sale of cryptocurrencies may cause legitimate bank customers to enter the fraudulent database of the Central Bank, which may lead to restrictions on transactions.

«From July 2024, banks must suspend money transfers for two days, which are made to banking details from this database. Banks also have the right to completely block card and online banking transactions for their clients if their banking details are found on this list," said Oleg Zamiralov, head of the T-bank Ecosystem Protection Center.

The experts interviewed commented on the question about the risks associated with laundering and distributing stolen digital assets from the Bybit crypto exchange. And whether Russian-speaking users of exchangers, p2p platforms and exchanges should worry about what they can buy in any way related to hacking assets, as well as what security measures can be taken.

Bybit is the second largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume after Binance and one of the world's largest platforms for trading crypto assets. In January 2025, it accounted for more than 6% of the global cryptocurrency trading volume. The platform is also very popular in Russia, with almost a third of Internet traffic in January 2025 coming from Russia.

On February 21, Bibit was hacked by losing control of the so-called cold wallet where Ethereum was stored. The attackers managed to steal $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency at prices at the time of the hack.

Banks have no choice

«As for the exchange of cryptocurrencies for the national currency, the risks include getting money into a bank account related to any illegal activity. After all, the user's details get into the fraudulent database of the Central Bank by simply submitting an application to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Police), indicating that funds were transferred to them by deception (fraud). All this is regulated by the provisions of Law 161-FZ, as amended in the summer of 2024," writes Andrey Tugarin, founder of GMT Legal.

"If the banking details got into the database of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation through the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then the blocking will not take long and will be carried out within a few days. In this case, access to all banks and online applications is blocked. A person is currently left without access to all their money," the expert noted.

And virtually any user of a cryptocurrency exchange service can get into such a situation. As Tugarin pointed out, this can happen by applying for p2p exchangers, where the user does not actually see who can send funds to him. And subsequently he is involved in a criminal case as the person to whose banking details the money was received.

No one is immune from this, as there is still not a single legal act in the Russian Federation that would regulate crypto exchange activities," Tugarin said.

Nikita Zuborev, a senior analyst at Bestchange, an aggregator of exchange services, confirmed that among the potential risks when selling cryptocurrencies for fiat money, the most dangerous is the possibility of becoming an unwitting accomplice in money laundering or a fraudulent scheme.

Risks of exchange

«The risks for users of p2p exchangers when buying cryptocurrencies are not so high, although they are perceived exaggeratedly in the public consciousness due to the frequency of mentioning such events in various media, but they should not be completely ignored either», Zuborev noted.

"If we talk about a typical p2p exchange situation on any major exchange, the risks here are not high, although they are not completely absent. However, it is very important in such places to pay attention to the history of successful operations, the profitability of the proposed course relative to other offers, and the "age" of participation on the site. Any deviation from the norm should stress you out," the expert shared.

However, Tugarin believes that the risk of using p2p exchangers for Russian cryptocurrency users is very high. And now it is worth considering not only sanctions on foreign platforms, but also carefully choosing exchangers for the sale of their digital assets.

"Exchangers, where we do not see participants, are the most risky group of sites. The risk of getting a "dirty" cryptocurrency is very high, since the user does not understand to the last which address the funds will be received from. And this is equivalent to the fact that he cannot conduct a preliminary check," Tugarin comments.

Wallet and transaction labeling systems are used on most crypto exchanges and other legal services. Due to the transparency of the blockchain, monitoring tools track the movement of funds from sanctioned exchange services, criminals' wallets or cryptomixers. If funds are received to the user's account from such an address, this increases the risk score of the cryptocurrency, and the exchange's compliance service may block the transfer.

In most cases, analytical systems work in such a way that the risks spread chronologically forward: the hacker's address was hacked and all the routes of movement of stolen funds are colored. But if they didn't find out about the theft right away, then the markup will be distributed retroactively. Thus, the coins in any user's wallet may suddenly become colored.

What to do

When asked how to reduce the risks when using exchange platforms, experts advised users to check the addresses from which the cryptocurrency will be credited and choose "trusted" services.

"The measures today are very simple — it is a preliminary verification of the address from which you plan to accept the cryptocurrency for purity. "Digital hygiene is on trend today, friends," Tugarin said.

The main advice given by Grigory Osipov, director of investigations at Shard, also boils down to "basic digital hygiene": "Using trusted crypto exchanges with a good reputation and mandatory compliance with KYC and AML requirements, since such services act as a kind of "verification buffer".

Osipov added that if the counterparty does not provide the user with an address from which the payment will be made or such an address is associated with risky and illegal activities, it is better to cancel the transaction. According to the expert, the days of thrill seekers who want to remain anonymous without going through any verification or using AML providers are coming to an end.

Consequences of the Bybit hack

According to Osipov, hacking Bybit, which has become the largest in the history of the crypto market, will radically strengthen the regulation of cryptocurrencies in those countries where they are legalized, and will directly affect the Russian market, which uses mainly foreign infrastructure.

Zuborev also notes the possibility of strengthening control over exchange services.: "As for the recent situation with the hacking of the Bybit exchange, this may provoke a small crisis in the exchange market due to the fact that potentially such a labeled cryptocurrency may get through interaction with DEX or some exchanges without KYC, which will provoke proceedings before the exchange is completed."

As another recommendation, Osipov suggested not using rare cryptocurrencies to make exchanges — this is due to the fact that theoretically attackers who hacked Bybit can exchange some of the stolen funds for them, and the databases of AML providers do not yet support such coins.

It's not just Russian-speaking users who should worry, but everyone who conducts operations with cryptocurrency in general, Tugarin writes. Although the main risk here is still the same as before, it is account blocking with a possible reason for "connection with illegal activities."

"Therefore, for the first time after the hacking, the AML systems of centralized exchanges will raise flags for the user to accept tokens directly or indirectly related to the hacking of Bybit," the expert concluded.

Be careful and please take care of yourself.