Vinnik Says U.S. Didn’t Seize BTC-e Cold Wallets

At the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, Alexander Vinnik, co-founder of the defunct exchange BTC-e, said U.S. authorities did not seize cryptocurrencies stored in the platform’s cold wallets after his 2017 arrest and urged former users to join a class-action lawsuit pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Vinnik said assets were split after his arrest: law enforcement took control of servers, bank accounts and payment systems, while the remaining holdings-mainly coins held in cold storage-remained outside the perimeter seized by the FBI. He said he lost access to those wallets and does not possess the seed phrases.

A portion of the balances later surfaced on WEX, an exchange that launched in late 2017 and positioned itself as BTC-e’s successor. WEX halted withdrawals in 2018 and later ceased operations. Vinnik denied involvement in creating WEX, saying he first learned of the platform from his lawyer. Aleksey Bilyuchenko, a co-founder linked to both platforms, has testified in Russia that he controlled the remaining balances.

Vinnik recounted his legal history briefly at the forum. He was detained in Thessaloniki in 2017 and faced competing extradition requests. Greece initially handed him to French authorities, where he received a sentence in 2020. He was later transferred to the United States, pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2024, and in February 2025 was exchanged for an American citizen held in Russia.

Defending parts of BTC-e’s operations, Vinnik argued the platform complied with banks and payment operators while also using privacy tools. He told attendees, “I was held responsible for the entire BTC-e turnover — on the grounds that it was in American dollars … I don’t understand why they tried to convict me.” He added, “We had anonymity, of course, but only to protect clients’ funds, so that some criminals couldn’t extort or rob them.”

Vinnik called on former customers to join the class-action lawsuit filed at the end of June 2025. The complaint covers “all virtual currency held in the BTC-e operating wallets as of July 25, 2017” and related assets. He reiterated a similar appeal on Telegram in February but did not provide details on the amount or current locations of the cold-storage holdings.

BTC-e was once among the largest exchanges serving Russian-speaking customers. U.S. officials previously accused the platform of processing billions of dollars in illicit funds, including cryptocurrency alleged to have been stolen from the collapsed Mt. Gox exchange.