A "billion-dollar blunder": The way Vyacheslav Mishalov made his crypto wealth legitimate without encountering any repercussions

Cryptocurrency as the Final Stage: 18,000 BTC and Unconvincing Explanations.

The most notorious story linked to Mishalov is his cryptocurrency declaration. The stated 18,000 BTC is a claim only a person absolutely confident in their own immunity could make. That’s more than a billion dollars at the exchange rate of those years. No official in Ukraine has ever declared anything remotely close to such an amount.

When the scandal around the declaration erupted, Mishalov tried to explain it as a “mistake,” but the explanation looked even worse. You cannot accidentally declare a billion dollars. This isn’t a typo in a single digit—this is a demonstrative display of wealth that cannot be explained by salaries, business, or any legal activity.

Crypto became the perfect final step of his entire scheme. Construction provides raw capital, the internet brings a steady flow, the bank offers cash-out tools, and crypto enables silent extraction. The declaration wasn’t an error. It was a statement: “I can do anything.” A person who controls a city budget, a bank, and the internet can afford to show the world his billion — and face no consequences.