Crypto exchange Bittrex to pay $24M for violating sanctions

By KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Crypto exchange Bittrex was fined $24 million by U.S. authorities on Tuesday for helping clients evade U.S. sanctions in places such as Syria, Iran and Crimea. It is the largest penalty ever levied against a crypto currency exchange by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to date, the agency said. The Treasury Department said that Bittrex allowed customers in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and the disputed region of Crimea to trade approximately $263.4 million worth of digital currencies between 2014 and 2017. In its statement, the U.S. said that Bittrex should have been aware these customers were in sanctioned parts of the world due to their physical addresses as well as their IP addresses.