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- Crypto crackdown in Canada as RCMP closed TradeOgre and seized $40M in the nation’s largest takedown.
- The probe began in June 2024 after Europol warned investigators who linked TradeOgre to money laundering.
- Authorities pledge tougher action as crypto crime losses reached $9.3B in 2024 with a 66 percent increase.
Canadian police conducted the largest crypto seizure in the country. The exchange TradeOgre was closed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and over 56 million Canadian dollars’ worth of assets were seized (equivalent to 40 million). It was the first cryptocurrency exchange that Canadian law enforcers broke.
The confiscation was after one year of investigation. In June 2024, Europol warned the money laundering unit of the RCMP. The probe was joined by the cybercrime units and Arkham Intelligence. The investigators tracked suspicious transactions and associated them with criminal organizations that were laundering illegal currency through the platform.
RCMP Confirmed Control of Assets
TradeOgre started in 2018. It specialized in Monero and altcoin trading. The exchange could not be registered with Fintrac as a money services business. It also disregarded know-your-customer regulations. Officials claimed that the absence of control rendered it appealing to traders who wanted their privacy as well as criminals.
Trouble became clear in July. The TradeOgre site was blacklisted, and the social media profiles were shut down. Reddit users also believed there was an exit scam. Bitcoin transactions with concealed messages were soon observed by blockchain trackers. These messages alleged that the RCMP had confiscated the assets.
Source: TradeOgre on Arkham
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Police were able to later confirm the texts posted as genuine. However, the officials said that it was the biggest seizure in Canadian crypto history. They said that data retrieved in TradeOgre would now be analyzed. The review should be followed by criminal charges. However, Arkham Intelligence reported that over 40 million dollars had already been transferred out of the wallets of the exchange.
Crypto Operations Freeze Over $300 Million
However, the case represents a wider effort to combat cybercrime. There has been increased cooperation between Canadian and U.S. authorities. They also targeted two operations on August 15 and froze more than $300 million in crypto assets. Project Atlas was aimed at wallets associated with scams. The effort under Operation Avalanche was targeting Ethereum-based fraud schemes.
In June, the United States also reported a major recovery. The Department of Justice also confiscated 225 million dollars of Tether linked to a global pork butchering scheme. Money was transferred via OKX into USDT wallets. However, this was the most significant Tether seizure ever.
However, cryptocurrency crime-related losses are on the increase. According to the FBI report, investors lost $9.3 billion in 2024. That was up 66 percent from 2023. Authorities caution ransomware and fraud are the number one threat. Canadian police reported that they would continue to target unregulated exchanges that facilitate laundering.
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