There were 34 crypto wallets linked to protests led by truckers in Canada. The Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told all regulated financial firms not to help with transactions from these wallets anymore.
Trucker ‘Freedom Convoy’
Police from the federal government is working with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to look into cryptocurrency donations made to protest against Canada’s vaccine mandate. Protests are now illegal under the Emergencies Act, which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has used for the first time since the law was passed in 1988, making them illegal for the first time.
At the end of January, truck drivers started a protest against restrictions on international travel that the Canadian government has put in place. All people who come to the country have to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It took a lot of time for trucks to block international bridges and borders in several Canadian provinces.
Among them are 29 bitcoin addresses, a Cardano address, an Ethereum Classic address, one Litecoin address, and one Monero address in the order in which they are shown on the list, A copy of the order was being shared on Twitter before lunch on Wednesday. CoinDesk has confirmed that it is real.
There are more than 20 BTC worth more than $870,000 (CAD$1.1 million) that have been sent to the addresses. After the GoFundMe account that had raised more than $9 million was shut down, the donors turned to cryptocurrencies.
This is how it looked like the Emergencies Act was going to go after protester money: Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told Trudeau that banks can freeze or suspend the bank accounts of truckers right away without a court order and without fear of being sued.
The RCMP and FINTRAC didn’t answer right away when we asked them for comment.
