This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are discussing Anna’s investigative piece on the black market of “verified” accounts on crypto exchanges and payment apps.
Know-Your-Customer (KYC) at crypto exchanges might be a painstaking process for users but there is a way to avoid all the troubles by simply buying a verified account in someone else’s name, Anna’s investigation found.
Online forums and Telegram groups where people buy and sell accounts registered to other people count thousands of members and thrive all over the world. Accounts on virtually any exchange, from Huobi to Coinbase Pro, services from Paxful to BlockFi and apps like CashApp, Wirex and Revolut – the offerings are abundant.
The price tag, somewhere between $50 and $500 for an account, makes such accounts a cheap and disposable tool for taxation avoidance, money laundering and getting around sanctions and other restrictions.
How does the black market of KYC work, what it takes to fool video-verification and what crypto exchanges and payment services are doing about this all? Listen to Ben, Danny and Anna dive into the life of underground black markets and read Anna’s piece, For $200, You Can Trade Crypto With a Fake ID.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
Bitcoin 
Ethereum 
XRP 
Tether 
BNB 
Solana 
USDC 
Lido Staked Ether 
Dogecoin 
Cardano 
TRON 
Wrapped stETH 
Chainlink 
Hyperliquid 
Wrapped Beacon ETH 
Wrapped Bitcoin 
Ethena USDe 
Sui 
Stellar 
Figure Heloc 
Avalanche 
Wrapped eETH 
Bitcoin Cash 
WETH 
Hedera 
Litecoin 
LEO Token 
Cronos 
Toncoin 
USDS 
Shiba Inu 
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) 
Coinbase Wrapped BTC 
Polkadot 
WhiteBIT Coin 
Uniswap 
Ethena Staked USDe 
World Liberty Financial 
Ethena 
Monero 
Mantle 
Aave 
Bitget Token 
Dai 
Pepe 
OKB 
Worldcoin 
MYX Finance 
NEAR Protocol 
Bittensor