As the Russian government is considering a ban on cash-to-cryptocurrency transactions, some major local crypto exchange platforms have experienced police raids.
Mosca, a crypto-to-cash exchange located in the Moscow International Business Center, was raided on April 23 in connection with fraud by one of its customers, Mosca’s development head Dmitry Titarenko confirmed to Cointelegraph.
“Law enforcement agencies have carried out a standard procedure of checking our customer data,” Titarenko told Cointelegraph at the local crypto event Blockchain Forum 2025.
The Mosca office raid followed online reports linking several arrests of some Mosca customers to a crypto robbery involving a victim reportedly giving fraudsters a massive cash deposit worth millions of dollars.
Cash-to-crypto ban to protect investors?
The police raid on Mosca came the next day after Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, proposed banning crypto exchangers from accepting cash from their customers to buy cryptocurrencies like Tether USDt (USDT).
A potential ban on cash-to-crypto transactions would be a “massive blow to fraudsters,” Masharov said, adding that phone scammers were “often using crypto exchangers for withdrawing cash funds.”
Subsequently, local news channel Baza reported on the Mosca raid, linking the event with a “record-breaking fraud” against Olga Serova, a former government adviser in Russia’s Samara region.
Serova, 71, reportedly fell victim to scammers in late 2024, cashing out her bank accounts to pass the fraudsters about 421 million Russian rubles ($5.1 million). According to Baza, at least seven people were arrested, allegedly in connection with the case.
Mosca clients can buy up to 100,000 USDT with cash daily
Mosca, which allows investors to deposit up to 100,000 USDT ($100,000) daily, was unaware whether Serova’s incident was connected to its office raid, Titarenko said.
“Maybe it was another client,” he said, adding that the raid was the first criminal-case-related office raid at Mosca in the past three months.
Titarenko also said that Mosca has been actively beefing up its Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer checks, including maintaining a blacklist of suspicious users.
Related: Russia’s central bank, finance ministry to launch crypto exchange
The raid caught Mosca during a major local event, Blockchain Life, returning to Moscow for the first time since October 2021. The company was one of the main guests at the conference, taking two center stands and winning a title of the “best crypto exchange service.”
According to Sergey Mendeleev, a prominent figure in the Russian crypto community, the proposal to ban cash-to-crypto transactions is an alarming development for the community.
Speaking at the event, Mendeleev suggested that the Russian government might be turning away from crypto adoption if it approves such a ban.
He also mentioned that raids are a common situation for crypto exchange services located at the Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow City.
Garantex, a crypto exchange that halted trading after Tether froze $27 million in USDT due to sanctions, was also among the exchangers located in Moscow City.
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