Two Russians Convicted for Stealing $6.2M in XRP in the Philippines

The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DOJ) has caught and convicted two Russian individuals who stole 12.2 million XRP tokens (worth $6.2 million) from Coins.ph, a Philippines-based crypto exchange they worked for. The duo currently faces multiple counts of criminal charges in the Asian country.

How It Happened

The Russian employees, Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck, worked as consultants for Coins.ph. Investigative results showed that they breached the crypto exchange’s security system and made away with the XRP stash. The theft seemed surprising to the firm because, despite only being consultants, Avdeev and Yaschuck understood the exchange’s infrastructure and security system.

After the case was presented before the Taguig Regional Trial Court, the duo was found guilty of violating laws involving the Cybercrime Prevention Act. Avdeev currently faces 23 counts of cybercrime acts, while Yaschuck faces three counts of similar charges. They both have a bail term of approximately $2,000.

Philippines’ Stance on Crypto

The Philippines government’s decision to take legal action against the malicious Russian employees demonstrates the country’s effort to promote a healthy crypto ecosystem for local investors.

On a broader scale, the government has shown itself to be crypto-friendly, like most Asian countries. In September 2023, the country’s ninth-largest bank, Unionbank, secured a license from the government to offer crypto trading to investors. Other crypto exchanges like Coins.ph operate in the country. Earlier today, stablecoin issuer Tether partnered with Coins.ph to enter the Philippines market.

More Crypto Theft

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a crypto exchange will suffer security attacks. CoinTab reported last month that the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin parted ways with $305 million worth of BTC. The firm revealed minimal information about the cause of the attack.

Security exploits on DeFi protocols and other blockchain-based projects have become common in the crypto industry. Earlier this month, the decentralized AI protocol Bittensor lost about $8 million to hackers. In another report, Gala, a blockchain gaming project, suffered a $200 million attack.