WASHINGTON, Feb 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The United States has released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik, as part of an exchange deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel, a senior US official said Thursday.

The official told AFP that Vinnik, who pleded guilty in May 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering, "was handed over to Russian officials."

US President Donald Trump's government has hailed the prisoner exchange as a positive sign for diplomacy between the two countries and for possible negotiations over an end to the Ukraine war.

Trump's overtures to Putin in particular have caused alarm in Europe, which has viewed Russia as a major threat since the invasion of Ukraine.

Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in a sudden thaw in relations.

Vinnik was extradited to the United States from Greece in August 2022, hours after he had been released from a French jail.

He was the operator of BTC-e, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges that processed more than $9 billion in transactions, according to US court documents.

The US Justice Department had previously called the exchange "one of the primary ways by which cyber criminals around the world transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities."