Live News Updates: Bitcoin Holds Below $16,000 as Genesis Worries Deepen Crypto Gloom

Two Estonian citizens have been arrested and charged in connection with what U.S. prosecutors described as $575 million in cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering.

Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turygin are accused of defrauding hundreds of thousands of victims, according to the US Justice Department, which unsealed an indictment against them on Monday.

The defendants allegedly tricked victims into signing fraudulent equipment rental agreements with the men's crypto mining service HashFlare. They are also accused of soliciting investments in a virtual currency bank called Polybius Bank, which prosecutors say was neither a bank nor paid promised dividends.

The arrest of the two men, aged 37, is the latest indication that law enforcement is increasingly focused on illegal crypto activity around the world.

The arrests in Tallinn, Estonia also come amid the bankruptcy of FTX, a one-time crypto platform controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was considered one of the crypto industry's standard-bearers at the height of his influence.

“New technologies have made it easier for bad actors to exploit innocent victims – both in the United States and abroad – in increasingly complex frauds,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite.

Earlier this month, the US secured the conviction of James Zhong, who once stole more than $3 billion worth of Bitcoin.