Tag: Zichain

Between 2017 and 2020, thousands of crypto licenses have been issued in Estonia for the operation of exchanges and wallet (payment) services. Estonia has become the mecca of the crypto payment industry in the EU. Many of the new entrants have positioned themselves primarily as facilitators of illegal transactions and scams. In the last 12 months, hundreds of these new crypto providers have disappeared. In some cases, the FIU revoked their licenses or did not renew them. Zichain OÜ still has its license but has disappeared anyway.

Digital currencies are the future in one way or another. For a few months now, online payment pioneer PayPal has also been accepting bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Estonia is currently the epicenter of European crypto payment processors. As of mid-2020, the Estonian FIU had issued more than 3,000 licenses (report here). Unfortunately, many of them are used to facilitate scams and illegal payment services. We have drafted a list of Estonian crypto payment companies that have come to our attention in scams.

Spanish CNMV has issued an investor warning against the Insta Trading scam allegedly operated by the Bulgarian Alcatel Group Ltd and/or Protiviti Group Ltd and/or Protiviti International EOOD are also involved as operators. These are fake companies. As payment processors, we have once again identified BridgerPay Cashier and, behind it, the crypto exchange Zichain OÜ and its Rashbe crypto service.

Zichain OÜ is a crypto payment processor and exchange licensed by the Estonian FIU. Besides, the company is also licensed as a general financial services provider and is doing business as Zichain, Cryptoeye, and Rashbe. Currently, one can only conduct crypto transactions through Zachain. Rashbe is associated with scams like Swiss500 or ApcoFX. In turn, Swiss500 is closely associated with a Russian high-risk payment processor and its network.

The UK FCA has issued an investor warning against the scam broker ApcoFX (www.apcofx.com), allegedly based in Germany and London. The scam is being developed in cooperation with the Estonian crypto payment processors CryptoFactory OÜ and their crypto exchange Bitxtech (www.bitx-pay.com) and Zichain OÜ and their Rashbe (www.rashbe.com) Crypto Payment Platform. Both companies have one of the worthless Estonian FIU licenses.