The Russian Crypto-Ride GaratEx, which is under the sanctions of the United States and the European Union, showed others crypto platforms on how to bypass financial restrictions, TRM Labs blockchain analysts said.

Experts recalled that after the introduction of GaratEx sanctions quickly resumed work under a different brand – Grinex. The new crypto-rope-clone showed the identical mechanism of onchain transaction, announced TRM Labs.

“The closure of GaratEx was an important event in law enforcement, but it showed that illegal players do not disappear, but adapt. We see that they use techniques such as rebranding and cloned interfaces, ”the blockchain company said in a statement.

TRM Labs drew attention to the activities of the ABCEX platform, which, after closing (including due to DDOS attack), resumed the work as AEEXBIT with an identical interface. ABCEX was associated with illegal gambling cryptocurrency games and the financing of terrorism. The new site also has connections with Garantex, she assured TRM Labs.

Tactics of rebranding and copying interfaces that applied GARANTEX, began to rapidly spread among other similar sites.

“The criminals study each other faster than law enforcement agencies manage to respond to this,” said TRM Labs experts.

In their opinion, it is now much more important to track the names, but the behavior and infrastructure of the sites – if there is a desire to fight with attackers and money laundering through cryptocurrencies. Earlier, TRM Labs experts claimed that the Garantex Europe OU (GaratEx) has prepared an action plan for bypassing the restrictions on the US Treasury.