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Historical Exchange Index

A quiet registry of crypto exchanges, active and gone.

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Exchange record

BTC-e

Defunct cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2011 and taken offline in July 2017 after U.S. law-enforcement actions and the arrest of Alexander Vinnik. HEI records BTC-e as a dead event-backed exchange due to the 2017 indictment, FinCEN penalty, domain/service disruption, and later guilty plea by Vinnik.

CEXDeadRegulation
Also known as: BTCE, BTC-e.com, btc-e.com, WEX predecessor

Registry sequence

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Key facts

Launch date
2011-01-01
Death date
2017-07-26
Years
2011–2017
Origin
Russia / global
Confidence
high
Last verified
2026-06-07

URL handling

Preferred action
Use archived URL first for historical viewing.
URL status
Dead domain
Original URL
https://btc-e.com/
Archived URL
View archived site

Summary

Defunct cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2011 and taken offline in July 2017 after U.S. law-enforcement actions and the arrest of Alexander Vinnik. HEI records BTC-e as a dead event-backed exchange due to the 2017 indictment, FinCEN penalty, domain/service disruption, and later guilty plea by Vinnik.

Timeline

BTC-e service went offline during law-enforcement action
2017-07-25shutdown_effectivehigh

BTC-e went offline around the July 2017 law-enforcement action. Public reference material and reporting describe the 2017 outage/seizure period as the end of the original BTC-e service.

FinCEN penalties and U.S. enforcement action
2017-07-26regulatory_actioncritical

FinCEN assessed penalties against BTC-e on July 26, 2017 as U.S. enforcement action escalated.

Alexander Vinnik pleaded guilty to money-laundering conspiracy
2024-05-03regulatory_actionhigh

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in May 2024 that Alexander Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with BTC-e's operation.

Evidence

FinCEN fines BTC-e virtual currency exchange $110 million
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)2017-07-26regulatory_noticehigh reliabilitydeath_reasonarchive
Archive index for the former official BTC-e site
Internet Archive2026-04-05archive_capturemedium reliabilityurl_historyarchive
Russian National And Bitcoin Exchange Charged In 21-Count Indictment
U.S. Department of Justice / Northern District of California2017-07-26court_documenthigh reliabilityeventarchive
Mt. Gox Bitcoin criminal charges, the official statement
Wired2017-07-27news_articlemedium reliabilityeventarchive
BTC-e public reference summary
Wikipedia—database_referencelow reliabilityeventarchive
Alexander Vinnik Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy
U.S. Department of Justice2024-05-03court_documenthigh reliabilityeventarchive
US releases Russian cybercriminal as part of exchange for teacher Marc Fogel
The Guardian2025-02-13news_articlemedium reliabilityeventarchive
Archived BTC-e website
Internet Archive—archive_capturemedium reliabilityentityarchive

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Notes and record state

Record note
The stored record uses the 2017-07-26 FinCEN enforcement date as the operational end marker.
Revision state
Records may be incomplete, approximate, contested, or revised as better evidence becomes available.
This record may be incomplete or revised. Dead-side entries prefer archived URLs over original domains. Dates, causes, and classifications may change when stronger evidence becomes available. Contact / corrections

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