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The US also said it will release a Russian national - Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in 2017 on charges related to the laundering of billions of dollars using virtual currency Bitcoin - as part of a prisoner exchange that brought home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel last week.

Bitcoin is often described as a cryptocurrency, a virtual currency or a digital currency and is a type of money that is completely virtual - there are no physical coins or notes.

He and his associates collected more than £12m in drugs cash in just 10 weeks to be exchanged for virtual currency.

The lawsuits were filed by 13 states separately and in the District of Columbia, where the attorney general also accused the company of running an unlicensed money transmission business via its "virtual currency" offering.

Transactions were made, the Times notes, “using the virtual currency Bitcoin, and Mr. Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, took in millions of dollars in commissions, prosecutors have said. They said Mr. Ulbricht had ‘developed a blueprint for a new way to use the Internet to undermine the law and facilitate criminal transactions,’ and that his conviction was ‘the first of its kind, and his sentencing is being closely watched.’