A court in the United Kingdom has ordered six cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and LUNO, to hand over customer’s information to an unnamed rival company to help it track $10.7 million in stolen assets.
According to reports, a judge in London ruled Tuesday that the aforementioned exchanges operating outside the jurisdiction should release customer information to the firm, whose name was withheld to avoid tipping off the criminals after discovering that the funds were spread to 26 accounts on one of the crypto trading platforms.
New Court Rule Seeks to Help Cyber Crime Victims
The court has requested that the companies disclose specific information, including users’ names, bank accounts, and card details, subject to certain redactions.
The Judge noted that adequate “steps must be taken before the smell gets colder to trace the $1.7 million of the money, which was tracked in 26 accounts, all owned or operated by one of the six exchanges.”
The undisclosed exchange, which suffered a security breach in 2020, first sought help from law enforcement, which proved abortive before hiring experts to help trace the funds. The group found that part of the $10.7 million stolen from the firm was held in the exchanges, the company’s legal representatives told the court.
Upon discovering the funds, the company reached out to the court for help which brought about legal action. The motion represents the first such legal application, which prompted the new court’s order aimed at helping victims of cyber fraud recover their assets.
Crypto Scams on the Rise
Meanwhile, new research has found that the number of crypto frauds in the U.K. has increased significantly over the years. Crypto crimes in the region grew by 32% in 2022, from £171 million to £226 million.
The number of fraud reports also increased to 10,030, up 16% compared to last year’s total of 8,676, data from Pinsent Masons, the multinational law firm U.K.
The frauds come in various ways, including fake celebrity endorsements, rug-pulling, initial coin offerings (ICO), and pump-and-dump schemes.
Generally, the crypto industry has lost over $3 billion to hacks, according to blockchain analytics company Chainalysis.
