A cryptocurrency trading and exchange platform in Kazakhstan was found to be carrying out illegal cryptocurrency transactions.
It has been revealed that the name of the particular exchange is ABS Change. The authorities based in Kazakhstan had been trying to establish the activities of the exchange to understand what it was up to.
As they finally establish what activities the exchange was involved in, they proceeded with shutting it down.
Announcement by FMA
The authority that made the official announcement about the shutdown of the ABS exchange was the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) of Kazakhstan.
The regulator made the announcement on multiple channels as well as through Telegram. More details have been shared by the regulatory representatives in the report.
It has been added in the report that they identified three locals from Kazakhstan who was involved in running the exchange illegally. They were carrying out illegal activities using the exchange, including illicit transactions.
The regulators shared more findings on the matter revealing that the exchange had been operating since 2021 without acquiring any license.
Kazakhstan is among the countries that are very much streamlined and strict when it comes to the adoption of cryptocurrencies. It has rules in place that govern how the crypto industry should operate in the country.
Details Shared by the Officials
The FMA has revealed that the law enforcement authorities were involved in the operation as they wanted to confiscate the exchange and its operations.
The report shows that the operation was carried out in the capital city of Kazakhstan. Following their crackdown, the teams were able to confiscate 7 million tenges, translating to almost $16,000.
In addition to the tenge, they were able to confiscate $342,000 worth of funds from the exchange. The authorities confirmed that they confiscated the funds in the form of cash.
On top of the cash funds, the authorities were able to confiscate cryptocurrency assets in the crypto wallets. They confirmed that these funds were present in the Binance exchange wallets.
Following the confiscation, the authorities seized the wallet so it is temporarily restricted.
Illegal Operations of ABS Change
The authorities added in the report that the $34 million worth of funds were transferred by the ABS Change exchange to the Binance exchange.
The watchdog revealed that the exchange was not running its operations from within the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Instead, it was operating its business outside of the particular zone.
According to the regulatory laws in Kazakhstan, the exchanges and crypto firms based within the AIFC are able to offer crypto-related services. Any entity offering such services outside of the AIFC is considered illegal and unlicensed.
FMA’s Focus
When it comes to the strict implementation of regulatory policies and guidelines, the FMA is just like the US SEC. The only difference is that it does not want the crypto industry gone from its jurisdiction.
Instead, it aims to regulate the cryptocurrency industry in the region to ensure that the entire industry is streamlined.
Prior to the involvement of the FMA, there was a huge gray area involved in business activities related to cryptocurrencies.
With the efforts put in by the FMA, the gray area has been cleared tremendously and in the past year, it was reduced to being below 20%.
Starting in 2023, the regulator has cracked down against multiple cryptocurrencies and digital asset offering websites. Several websites have been taken down by the FMA that was involved in offering crypto tokens for trading.
Following their initial action in the year 2023, the regulator has also seized a major property worth $188,000. The property was involved in running illegal operations for cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
Their investigations revealed that they had people from Russia involved in running most of the illegal crypto operations in the country.
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