The Biggest Crypto Scandals of 2022

A Look at Some of the Biggest Scandals to Hit the Cryptocurrency Space So Far This Year

2022 has been a volatile year for both traditional and crypto markets. In the crypto space, some of that volatility has been due to a number of high-profile scandals. Here’s a look at the biggest ones so far this year.

The $4.5 Billion Money Laundering Scheme

Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan, 31, were accused of helping to launder 119,754 bitcoin. The couple was arrested on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, in New York in what was the largest financial seizure in history for the U.S. Justice Department.

This scandal made headlines everywhere. While it didn’t necessarily precipitate any broader price action in the markets, this story was something of a precursor of what the rest of the year held in store for us.

In 2016, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges was hacked. Founded in 2012, Bitfinex was one of the earliest crypto exchanges in the industry. In August 2016, the company suffered what they described as “a major security breach.”

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