The precarious industry of buying and selling cryptocurrency for cash has some serious drawbacks in terms of attempting to trade large volumes in crypto and the security issue during the transaction. Imagine having to liquidate some 2 Bitcoin (BTC) with someone who wants to offer hard cash that you desperately need for other investments or uses.
This means your customer for the 2 BTC will have to carry with him, a cool $18,466 in cash. Now, this is a lot of money for one individual to carry and the risks are high when dealing with strangers for such transactions. The possibilities of a set-up cannot be ignored 100%. Trust in this Crypto-verse is no longer guaranteed.
There has been a growing number of crypto related fraud and theft that has been reported in Russia since BTC and Crypto took over the world of investing in the past few months. In most cases, Russian police are always reluctant to investigate such crimes for there is no set laws that even mention cryptocurrencies, let alone to give guidelines for regulation.
This then leaves the doors open for private security firms to capitalize on this hick-up to provide security services to high profile traders and those in possession of large amounts of crypto; and obviously at a fee.
One example of an attack was witnessed in February when the creator of PRIZM, Yury Mayorov, was kidnapped by four men and robbed of $20,000 in cash, 300 BTC and three iPhones. Mayorov was grabbed off of Isakovskogo Street in Moscow and put into a Mercedes Benz, beaten and robbed while they drove around the city.
With such cases being rampant in Russia, it is not a bad idea hiring a personal guard at a starting rate of as low as $15 an hour. The prices do go up if the client wants to hire a vehicle and more guards when doing crypto related business. Most private security firms in the country now provide contracts for property protection that covers suitcases with cash and hard wallets.
The best way of mitigating from being a victim in Russia, is to either to take care of your anonymity as a silent crypto millionaire or hire these guys.
[Photo source, indiamart.com]
