Krebs on Security reported that the United Kingdom put sanctions on the crypto payment platform Cryptomus on October 8. The firm was earlier called Certa Payments and Xeltox Enterprises. Krebs says the U.K. acted because it processed payments that benefit the Russian government and its banks. Any Cryptomus money held in U.K. banks is frozen, and British companies may not do business with it. VexPay, TokenSpot and Tsunami Payments were also named.
Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, said in an October 8 blog post that Cryptomus and Heleket took in more illicit funds than the mixers in its data. It counted more than 900 illicit counterparties in one month in late 2025. TRM Labs, another analysis firm, found in April 2026 that Cryptomus had handled over $7 billion since 2022. Krebs says the firm renamed itself Heleket last year, after a CAD $176 million Canadian fine. A Heleket support agent denies any link to Cryptomus. Krebs says the evidence points the other way. The sources do not say whether Heleket is covered by the sanctions. They also do not say how long Cryptomus will stay unable to process payments, as its support bot said on October 8.
Firms in the U.K. that take, route or settle crypto payments can no longer deal with Cryptomus or the three other named services. Analyst Richard Sanders said Canada's fine could not be collected, while sanctions can end such an operation. Teams that accept crypto may want to check which payment partners sit behind their processors.