European exchange WhiteBIT announced the inclusion of its native token in major digital asset benchmarks by leading global provider of financial market indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices, marking a significant step for the platform and the region’s crypto infrastructure sector.

WhiteBIT Included In Major Crypto Indices

On Thursday, top crypto exchange WhiteBIT announced that its token, WBT, has been added to the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market (BDM) Index, curated by S&P Dow Jones Indices (DJI).

The S&P BDM Index is designed to track the performance of crypto assets that meet strict institutional criteria, including liquidity, market capitalization, governance, transparency, and risk controls, and are listed on recognized open digital exchanges.

This marks an important milestone for both WhiteBIT and the broader fintech landscape in Central and Eastern Europe, the exchange noted, as it reinforces “the platform’s growing role in the global crypto economy” and highlights the industry’s move toward regulated, infrastructure-level players.

In a statement, Volodymyr Nosov, CEO of WhiteBIT, affirmed that “being recognized by S&P DJI is more than an index inclusion — it signals that crypto infrastructure from our region has reached global institutional standards.”

The announcement also revealed that WBT was added to the other four S&P Dow Jones digital-asset indices, including the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset (BDA) Index, S&P Cryptocurrency Financials Index, S&P Cryptocurrency LargeCap Ex-MegaCap Index, and the S&P Cryptocurrency LargeCap Index.

Notably, index providers have been expanding coverage beyond protocol-layer tokens as the industry matures, acknowledging the systemic role of exchanges and financial infrastructure platforms, positioning these companies within the global map of institutional-grade digital asset providers.

The exchange underscored that the classifications require a remarkable record of liquidity stability, transparent price formation, and consistent market cap behavior. “This is a turning point not only for our company but also for the evolution of compliant crypto services worldwide,” Nosov continued.

WhiteBIT’s Expansion And WBT’s Momentum

The S&P index inclusions follow a strong market performance from WBT, which rallied around 50% over the last three months, despite recent market volatility that sent many leading tokens to multi-month lows in the past few weeks.

In mid-November, the altcoin reached an all-time high (ATH) of $62.96, fueled by last month’s positive developments. As reported by Bitcoinist, WhiteBIT unveiled its entry into the Argentine and Brazilian markets, building on its expansion to Australia, Croatia, Italy, and Kazakhstan.

The move is expected to integrate local fiat providers and add support for local currencies, aiming to further enhance accessibility and convenience for domestic users in the two largest countries in South America.

Moreover, the exchange signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Durrah AlFodah Holding, represented by His Royal Highness Prince Naif Bin Abdullah Bin Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to drive the Kingdom’s development in blockchain technology, digital finance, and data infrastructure.

Under the strategic agreement, WhiteBIT is set to provide technological expertise and infrastructure design. Meanwhile, Durrah AlFodah will facilitate the exchange’s market entry, regulatory engagement, and partnership development across Saudi Arabia.

Now, being part of S&P’s indices offers WBT a clear benchmark, the announcement added, facilitating its use in future financial products and long-term investment strategies.

This expanded representation marks an important shift for WBT: from a utility token into a component integrated into global benchmark structures used by investment firms, ETF/ETN designers, and quantitative research platforms. Its presence in multiple institutional models means that WBT is now incorporated into the analytical frameworks that guide long-term allocation strategies, diversified exposure construction, and risk-adjusted portfolio modelling.

In the late hours of December 3, WBT rallied to a new ATH of $63.05 before stabilizing around the $62 mark, according to CoinGecko data. This represents a 14.5% increase from the recent lows and a 9% surge in the weekly timeframe.

KuCoin has secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in Austria, a move that expands its regulated presence across the European Union.

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The approval, granted to its local entity KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH, allows the platform to offer digital asset services in 29 European Economic Area (EEA) countries under the EU’s unified crypto regulatory framework.

A Major Step Under the MiCA Regulatory Framework

The MiCA framework, which took full effect in December 2024, establishes uniform requirements for crypto service providers across the European Union.

With its Austrian authorization, KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH is now permitted to offer trading, custody, and other digital asset services across 29 EEA countries through MiCA’s passporting mechanism.

To meet MiCA obligations, exchanges must comply with capital adequacy standards, segregate customer assets, adhere to transparency rules, and obtain approval from national regulators.

KuCoin reports that it has implemented several security and compliance measures to meet these requirements, including SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701, and CCSS certifications, alongside third-party proof-of-reserves audits.

CEO BC Wong said the authorization aligns with the company’s long-term compliance plans and reflects the regulatory expectations set under MiCA.

Under MiCA’s passporting mechanism, KuCoin can now operate its digital asset services across 29 EEA countries, once it is licensed in Austria. This places the exchange among other major platforms, such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, that secured authorization ahead of the regulation’s full rollout.

The license is designed to expand KuCoin’s ability to serve users within a unified regulatory framework that applies consistent standards across member states.

This development also aligns with the company’s broader “$2 Billion Trust Project,” which includes efforts to enhance compliance systems and follows its AUSTRAC registration in Australia in November.

As part of the transition, EEA users except those in Malta will gain access to KuCoin EU’s upcoming MiCA-compliant platform, while new registrations on KuCoin Global will no longer be available within the region.

KuCoin’s MiCA approval reinforces a broader shift in the crypto sector as exchanges adapt to tighter regulatory expectations. For investors, MiCA brings more clarity around standards for disclosure, asset protection, and operational oversight. For exchanges, it creates a consistent framework that simplifies cross-border operations.

Related Reading: Domino-Effect Sell-Off: Analysts Reveal The Spark Behind Bitcoin’s Flash Crash

As the European market continues to formalize its digital asset rules, KuCoin’s alignment with MiCA positions it to compete more effectively with other regulated exchanges. The company says it will continue scaling its compliance programs as it expands across additional jurisdictions.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Russian crypto traders have been looking to obtain unrestricted accounts for global exchanges as their access to such platforms is limited. Over the past year, the offering of such accounts on the dark web has increased significantly, cybersecurity experts told the Russian press.

Supply of Crypto Exchange Accounts for Russian Users Doubles in a Year of Sanctions

More and more ready-to-use accounts for cryptocurrency exchanges are being sold to Russian residents. While this is not a new phenomenon — such accounts are often employed by fraudsters and money launderers — the current growth in supply has been attributed to the restrictions imposed by the trading platforms on customers from Russia, as a result of compliance with sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Russian residents have been buying these accounts despite the dangers, including the risk that whoever created them could maintain access after the sale, the Kommersant reported. But they are inexpensive and offers on darknet markets have doubled since early 2022, Nikolay Chursin from the Positive Technologies information security threat analysis group told the business daily.

According to Peter Mareichev, an analyst at Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence, the number of new ads for ready-made and verified wallets on various exchanges reached 400 in December. Proposals to prepare fake documents for passing know-your-customer procedures also rose, the newspaper revealed in an earlier article last month.

Simple login data, username and password, is typically priced at around $50, Chursin added. And for a fully set up account, including the documents with which it was registered, a buyer would have to pay an average of $300. Dmitry Bogachev from digital threat analysis firm Jet Infosystems explained that the price depends on factors such as the country and date of registration as well as the activity history. Older accounts are more expensive.

Sergey Mendeleev, CEO of defi banking platform Indefibank, pointed out that there are two categories of buyers — Russians that have no other choice as they need an account for everyday work and those who use these accounts for criminal purposes. Igor Sergienko, director of development at cybersecurity services provider RTK-Solar, is convinced that demand is largely due to crypto exchanges blocking Russian accounts or withdrawals to Russian bank cards in recent months.

Major crypto service providers, including leading digital asset exchanges, have complied with financial restrictions introduced by the West in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last year, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, Binance, indicated that, while restricting sanctioned individuals and entities, it was not banning all Russians.

However, since the end of 2022, a number of Russian users of Binance have complained about having their accounts blocked without explanation, as reported by Forklog. Many experienced problems for weeks, including suspended withdrawals amid prolonged checks, affected customers said. The company told the crypto news outlet that the blocking of users from Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States was related to the case with the seized crypto exchange Bitzlato.

Do you think the restrictions will push more Russians towards buying ready-made accounts for cryptocurrency exchanges? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, better known to the Russian-speaking segment of the market, has been taken down as part of an “international cryptocurrency enforcement action,” the U.S. Justice Department announced. The Russian owner of the platform has been arrested for his role in the alleged transmission of illicit money. Bitzlato claimed it was hacked.

US, France Hit Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitzlato, Russian Co-founder Detained in Miami

U.S. authorities have apprehended Anatoly Legkodymov, a resident of China, on charges that his Hong Kong-registered crypto trading platform, Bitzlato, processed illicit funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Russian, a co-founder and majority owner of the exchange, was arrested by the FBI in Miami on Tuesday, a high-ranking official from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed.

Speaking during a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that Justice Department agents and prosecutors, working with the U.S. Treasury Department and French law enforcement, have “disrupted Bitzlato, a China-based cryptocurrency exchange, notorious for laundering criminal proceeds from the darknet” and ransomware attacks. She also stated:

Today, the Department of Justice has dealt a significant blow to the crypto crime ecosystem.

Legkodymov is accused of operating the exchange as a “high-tech financial hub that, in his own words, catered to ‘known crooks’,” Monaco explained. She went on to allege that Bitzlato was a “crucial financial resource” for Hydra, the largest darknet market, with Russian roots, which was shut down in April, last year, by the German police with the support of U.S. agencies.

According to the DOJ, Hydra buyers funded illicit purchases from crypto accounts hosted at Bitzlato while sellers of drugs, stolen financial information and hacking tools sent criminal proceeds to accounts at the exchange, collectively amounting to $700 million in direct and indirect transfers between 2018 and 2022.

The deputy attorney general also said that the participants in the operation have engaged in a “coordinated campaign of disruption.” This included law enforcement actions in a number of European countries and the seizure of Bitzlato’s servers. By midday Wednesday, Bitzlato’s website was replaced by a notice saying that the service had been seized by French authorities, Reuters reported.

Crypto Exchange Bitzlato Claims It Was Hacked, Halts Withdrawals

Also on Wednesday, the operators of Bitzlato announced on Telegram, that the exchange had suffered a hacking attack. They told users that withdrawals had been suspended indefinitely and asked them to refrain from sending coins to the platform until the issue is resolved.

“Our service was hacked, part of the funds was withdrawn from the service,” the exchange said, noting that the attackers were able to steal a small portion of the funds without specifying the amount. It also sought to assure customers in a second message that their assets were not lost, stating:

For all victims, we guarantee a refund.

“As a security measure, we have disabled the service, we ask you not to replenish the wallets of our service until the work is restored,” Bitzlato reiterated, adding that its team was working on the problem. At the time of writing, the platform is still offline.

The hack presumably took place after on Tuesday the exchange announced maintenance scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 19, “aimed at improving the operation of the service and its security.” The notice informed users it will halt transactions between 5 and 9 a.m. Moscow time.

“We strongly recommend that you organize your work activities taking into account the amendments in order to avoid unpleasant situations,” the platform advised customers, informing them that it plans to disable deposits, withdrawals and trading.

Bitzlato launched in 2016 under the name Changebot and later became a cryptocurrency exchange offering peer-to-peer (P2P) trading services. It lists pairs of the Russian ruble with BTC, ETH, USDT, and other digital coins which can be bought and sold with a variety of payment methods.

Online crypto exchangers like Bitzlato are popular in Russia and the former Soviet space but as crypto assets are yet to be fully regulated in the region, they are often targeted by authorities across the Commonwealth of Independent States. A report recently revealed that the Belarusian judiciary has imposed a hefty fine on the operator of one such platform.

Do you expect other similar operations against crypto trading platforms in the near future? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Russian institutions have responded to a call from а public movement for joint efforts to identify cryptocurrency transfers related to drug trade. The anti-drug organization, Stopnarkotik, recently asked the interior ministry and the central bank to investigate alleged connections between U.S.-sanctioned crypto exchange Suex and a darknet market operating in the region.

Russian Authorities Respond to Stopnarkotik’s Request for Action Against Drug Trade

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD) and Bank of Russia have agreed to cooperate with the All-Russian Public Movement Stopnarkotik on identifying financial flows involving cryptocurrencies obtained as a result of drug sales. The Russian online news portal Lenta.ru reported on the agreement, quoting a letter from a high-ranking MVD official.

The letter signed by Major General Andrei Yanishevsky, head of the Drug Control Department at the Interior Ministry, has been issued after a working meeting with representatives of the anti-drug organization. It comes in response to Stopnarkotik’s call for the two institutions to carry out an investigation focused on Suex, a Russia-based OTC crypto broker, and its links to other companies and banks.

In September, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted the Czech-registered entity Suex OTC s.r.o. which operates out of physical offices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The crypto platform is suspected of processing hundreds of millions of dollars in coin transactions related to scams, ransomware attacks, darknet markets, and the infamous Russian BTC-e exchange.

Since launching in 2018, Suex is believed to have received over $481 million in BTC alone. Close to $13 million came from ransomware operators such as Ryuk, Conti, and Maze, over $24 million was sent by crypto scams like Finiko, $20 million came from mixers, and another $20 million from darknet markets such as the Russia-targeting Hydra, blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis detailed in a report.

In its request to the Russian authorities, following the announcement of the U.S. sanctions, Stopnarkotik noted that Suex had been “involved in money laundering for the largest drug-selling platform.” The organization pointed out that the market’s drug trafficking in the Russian Federation amounts to an estimated $1.5 billion a year or more.

It also mentioned the name of one of Suex’s co-founders and highlighted its alleged connections with other crypto companies and financial institutions such as Exmo, a major digital asset exchange in Eastern Europe, financial services company Qiwi, a leading payment provider in Russia and the CIS countries, as well as the Ukraine-based Concord Bank.

Stopnarkotik asked Bank of Russia to provide its assessment on the matter, check if the operations of Suex and other entities are being conducted in accordance with the law in Russia, and consider blocking Russian payments to a Ukrainian organization.

“We received a response from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Central Bank. We also had a personal meeting with the Ministry of Internal Affairs so that they had an understanding of how we receive information, including about money laundering,” the movement’s chairman, Sergei Polozov, has been quoted as saying. He added that the Russian Interior Ministry is ready to accept Stopnarkotik’s data and work together with the organization.

Do you expect the cooperation between Stopnarkotik and Russian government institutions to develop further? Tell us in the comments section below.