Roman Sterlingov, the individual responsible for Bitcoin Fog, a well-known cryptocurrency mixing service, has been convicted by a jury in a federal court. The outcome of the trial, which lasted a month, reveals a scheme that purportedly enabled the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal funds over the course of ten years. This successful conviction is a big win for American authorities as they continue to work towards preventing the illegal use of cryptocurrency. The article also discusses BlackRock’s dominant presence in the Bitcoin ETF market, where they have a significant amount of BTC compared to MicroStrategy. Is cryptocurrency a safe haven for illicit funds? Digital assets such as Bitcoin have been under scrutiny for years due to concerns about their susceptibility to exploitation by criminals. Bitcoin transactions are hard to track even though they are recorded on a public ledger because of the anonymity of user accounts. This anonymity is particularly worrisome with platforms like Bitcoin Fog, which mix cryptocurrency transactions. Bitcoin Fog operated by combining funds from multiple users and then sending them out in smaller, divided transactions to hide where the money came from and where it was going. In court, prosecutors made a strong argument by carefully following a path of cryptocurrency transactions that passed through Bitcoin Fog and ultimately came from dark web markets known for illegal drug sales. It was calculated that the combined worth of illegal funds laundered was more than $400 million, and a substantial amount, approximately $78 million, was directly associated with these illicit platforms. This case also highlights the increasing use of cryptocurrency mixers by sanctioned entities to bypass financial limitations.