An article in a Finnish publication earlier this week MTV utility set Finland's National Investigation Agency (KRP) has claimed to have successfully traced transactions made using privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies. Monero.
However, a former member of the MAGIC Monero Fund committee said it is unlikely that Monero itself was compromised. Decryption. Csilla Brimer said Monero itself was not compromised, but operational security flaws on the part of users likely allowed investigators to track some transactions.
“If you don't pay attention to operational security and keep switching between Bitcoin and Monero, your information could be compromised,” she said. Decrypt. “Regulators may use this gaffe to claim they can go after Monero.”
Brymer, a blockchain consultant and co-founder of the Open Economy Initiative, added: “Monero is very protective of transaction details, but it doesn't protect against mistakes in its own security habits.” Ta.
KRP is investigating transactions made by addresses associated with the 2018 Finnish psychotherapy provider Vastaamo data breach and subsequent extortion. In 2020, hackers stole data from the company twice and then threatened to release patients' personal information unless the company paid them. Investigators transferred 0.1 BTC to the address provided and have since analyzed how the wallet moved funds using Bitcoin and Monero.
This is what led KRP to claim that it has discovered a way to track XMR transactions, even if the organization doesn't want specifics on how it did it.
All sections of the additional research report include: [NBI] The head of the investigation, Marko Reposen, said the method revealed that it was encrypted. MTV utility set The translated version of the article added that the authorities do not want to reveal anything about the analysis of Monero traffic.
Brimmer, who was elected to the MAGIC Monero Foundation board in 2022, did not seem concerned about the Finnish officials' claims. Despite being banned by several exchanges, XMR is the largest privacy coin with a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. It was trading at $158.22 per coin as of Friday morning, up 1% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
Still, it is often one of the major projects to draw attention to money laundering allegations.
Bittrex, BitBay, and Huobi all delisted Monero to appease regulators who say they are trying to curb money laundering. And in 2021, US-based Kraken delisted Monero for its UK customers to comply with the country's AML regulations. Monero is currently one of several privacy coins at risk of being delisted from Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.
Earlier this year, Binance said in a blog post that Monero, ZCash, and other privacy coins “exhibit significantly higher volatility and risk than other publicly traded tokens” and are “at risk of failing to meet our listing criteria.” Ta.
Edited by Stephen Graves.
