Pyramid Plustoken transferred $180 million to Ethereum. What traders have to fear

Scammers tried to launder the cryptocurrency, sending it to unknown wallets in small amounts. Will this lead to a decline in the value of digital assets and which may affect ordinary users

Plustoken's cryptocurrency pyramid funds have set in motion. Yesterday, June 24, 789,534 Ethereum was transferred from her wallet, at the current rate it is about $184 million. The transaction was recorded by The Whale Alert Twitter bot.

According to the etherscan.io,at first all the coins went to an unknown wallet. Then another translation was made to another one. From it the sum of 789 534 began to send in small portions of 100-200 ETH to new addresses. Then the volume of transactions increased to tens of thousands of ETH.

A few days earlier, another translation had passed from Plustoken's wallet. More than 26 million EOS tokens have been withdrawn, which now cost about $65 million. The funds were also sent to an unknown address.

Will cryptocurrency reach the exchanges?

Cryptocurrency pyramid can reach trading platforms, admitted the CEO of the exchange EXMO Sergey Yudanov. Attackers in such cases use "mixers" - it's special services to hide and confuse transactions. Funds can also be cashed out through small exchanges that do not have anti-money laundering systems.

"It will reach the exchanges, the question is how soon. The scheme is likely to be used by fraudsters known - to change small quantities through mixers and small exchangers. Today, a very small number of the market checks transactions, but it will not be so easy to do it," - suggested Yudanov.

He added that the activation of the pyramid is unlikely to affect the cryptocurrency market. The community has become calmer in responding to break-ins and other similar incidents. The same movements of bitcoins on Satoshi Nakomoto's wallet look more interesting in the context of market movements, but even this was probably a simple manipulation.

A similar opinion was voiced by the leading trader of United Traders Alexei Markov. According to him, the price of bitcoin and other coins will not be affected by the Plustoken incident, it is more dependent on fluctuations in the US stock market. In addition, the funds of the pyramid are unlikely to reach the trading floors. Exchanges check the cryptocurrency for purity, as they do not need problems with the law.

Random users may be affected

Attackers will probably try to cash the cryptocurrency or exchange it for another one with a clean history. In this case, ordinary users may suffer. If they get "dirty" coins, they can be blocked when transferred to trading platforms, whose management fights money laundering.

"We will definitely block them. On the one hand, using services to track the "dirty" cryptocurrency, on the other hand, we have our internal developed verification triggers that work no worse," the head of EXMO continued.

Yudanov warned that the "dirty" cryptocurrency could go to casual traders. This is especially true for those who use incomprehensible and unknown exchangers or p2p-trading (from person to person), where it is not necessary to undergo the procedure of confirmation of identity. It's also important to understand that not all trackers track EOS transactions.

Gleb Kostarev, the head of Binance in Russia and the CIS, warned about the same. Users, not knowing that, can accidentally buy "dirty" funds on over-the-counter services and sites, where you do not need a check of identity. If this cryptocurrency later enters the major platforms, it may have to prove the legality of its origin.

"Given the increasingly tight regulation of cryptocurrencies in the world, the strengthening of the fight against financial crimes, cryptocurrency users should be careful when buying cryptocurrency with the help of over-the-counter transactions, and on platforms where the tools to track suspicious transactions are not integrated. Getting cryptocurrency, seen in financial crimes, on large trading platforms can threaten problems and questions to the user, from where it was received," Kostarev said.

Experts agreed that there is no reason to fear a sharp decline in the cryptocurrency market because of the activation of the pyramid. The community has seen this many times and is unlikely to succumb to panic.

However, stolen funds can be laundered through small exchange services where no identity checks are required. Such sites are safer not to use, as there is a risk to buy stolen coins. In this case, there may be problems in the transfer of cryptocurrency to exchanges, which prevent such frauds.