The Royal Canadian Mounted Police just pulled off something pretty unprecedented in the crypto world. They seized $56 million CAD worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum from TradeOgre, a small exchange that’s been around since 2018, and they did it without actually charging anyone with a crime yet.
TradeOgre was one of those no-frills exchanges that privacy coin enthusiasts loved because you didn’t need to verify your identity to trade. No KYC requirements, no personal documents, just straight anonymous crypto swapping. That’s exactly what got them in trouble.
The police basically said they had reason to believe most of the money flowing through TradeOgre came from criminal sources. The exchange was operating in Canada without being registered as a money service business, which is apparently a big no-no. Plus, the whole anonymous trading thing made it impossible to track where funds were coming from or going to.
What’s really wild is that this might be the first time Canadian authorities have completely shut down a crypto exchange like this. They didn’t just seize some funds-they dismantled the entire operation. The investigation started after Europol’s anti-money-laundering unit tipped them off back in June 2024.
TradeOgre was particularly popular with people who wanted to trade privacy coins like Monero, which are designed to be completely untraceable. Those types of cryptocurrencies have been getting hammered by regulators lately because they make it nearly impossible for authorities to follow the money trail.
Conclusion
The TradeOgre takedown marks a turning point for Canadian crypto regulation, signaling that anonymity-focused exchanges and privacy coins face increasing global crackdowns as governments tighten oversight to combat money laundering and illicit financial flows.
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