US Government Seizes Russian Bitcoin Exchange BTC-e Domain

In a move that perhaps epitomizes the current market climate of Bitcoin and altcoins, the US Federal Government seized the domain name belonging to BTC-e.

After the news last week that Alex Vinnik had been arrested amid allegations that he had laundered nearly $4 bln in Bitcoin through the site, the future of the site was unclear. After the additional revelation that the stolen Mt. Gox funds had likely been laundered by the site also surfaced, the future was even more dimmed.

“I’ll Be Back”
Nevertheless, the site had told users that it would be back and fully functional within five to 10 days of the arrest of its infamous leader. However, funds were being kept by the system and were not available for withdrawal.

The recent seizure of the domain name has given rise to strong concerns that the site will be permanently (or at least indefinitely) closed.

The result funds associated with the many accounts on the site are still up for question. The entire process has been confusion and bizarre and has certainly hurt the state Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies generally.