Plastron Blog — Page 2
What Happens to Self-Hosted Wallet Transfers Over EUR 1,000?
Article 14(5) of the EU's Travel Rule quietly adds a wallet-ownership check on self-hosted transfers over EUR 1,000. Here is what triggers it, how exchanges verify it, and why passing that check says nothing about a wallet's actual risk exposure.
Exchange Compliance · 2026-08-22 · 5 min readWhat Is Proof of Reserves and Why Doesn't It Prove Your Exchange's Wallets Are Clean?
Proof of reserves proves an exchange holds the coins it claims to hold. It says nothing about whether those wallets received stolen, sanctioned, or laundered funds.
Stolen Funds · 2026-08-21 · 8 min readCan Police Recover Crypto Stolen in a Pig-Butchering Scam?
Tracing stolen crypto and recovering it are two different things. Here is what a real Secret Service seizure looked like, and why most cases never get that far.
crypto payroll · 2026-08-20 · 5 min readHow to Pay a Crypto Contractor Without Sending to a Sanctioned Wallet
A checklist for screening a contractor's or vendor's wallet before you send crypto payroll - catch sanctions, mixer, and stolen-funds exposure before the money moves.
Wallet Security · 2026-08-19 · 4 min readLedger and Trezor Letters Are Draining Wallets. Here's the Scam.
Scammers are mailing Ledger and Trezor owners fake 'authentication check' letters with a QR code that leads to a seed-phrase-stealing site. Here's how the scam works, and what to do if you already scanned it.
Comparison · 2026-08-18 · 6 min readCustodial vs Non-Custodial Wallets: Who Gets AML Screened?
Custodial exchanges run KYC and monitoring the moment you sign up. Non-custodial wallets get no independent AML check at all, unless you run one yourself.
stolen funds · 2026-08-17 · 4 min readSIM Swap Drained Your Wallet? Here's How to Trace Where It Went
SIM-swap theft moves crypto fast, but the wallet it lands in still carries a traceable pattern. Here's what the Terpin v. AT&T case and a 2026 DOJ forfeiture filing show about tracing it before it's gone.
Wallet Screening · 2026-08-16 · 5 min readThe Coldcard Hack Drained $116M. Here's Where It's Hiding.
A five-year-old firmware bug let attackers brute-force Coldcard seed keys and drain $116 million in bitcoin. Most of it is still sitting untouched, which is exactly the window wallet screening needs.
Circle · 2026-08-15 · 4 min readWhy Didn't Circle Freeze $232M in Stolen USDC After the Drift Hack?
Circle froze 16 innocent wallets in March 2026 but let $232 million in Drift-hack USDC move for six hours in April. Here is why, and what it means if your wallet is downstream.
DeFi · 2026-08-14 · 5 min readHyperliquid and GMX Skip KYC. They Skip Wallet Screening Too.
Hyperliquid, GMX, and similar perpetual exchanges skip KYC entirely, but their compliance model only checks IP address, not wallet history. Here is the real gap between geo-blocking and wallet-level screening, and how to check an address before connecting it.