Germany and Switzerland shut down $1.4 billion crypto mixer for cross-border activities: Europol

European authorities have dismantled Cryptomixer, a cryptocurrency mixing service that laundered more than $1.4 billion (€1.3 billion). Bitcoin Since 2016, more than $27 million (€25 million) in BTC and 12 terabytes of data have been seized during coordinated operations in Switzerland.

German and Swiss law enforcement, supported by Europol and Eurojust, carried out a takedown in Zurich last week, seizing three servers and the cryptomixer.io domain.

Crypto mixers hide the origin of funds by shuffling incoming transactions and sending back coins that cannot be linked to their original source.

According to a Europol press release, the operation involved shutting down services that operated on both the clear web and the dark web, followed by the installation of seizure banners on websites.

Cryptomixer has enabled ransomware teams, underground forums, and dark web markets to launder proceeds from drug trafficking, arms trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud by blocking the traceability of funds. blockchainAccording to the agency.

“Major cleaning base”

Cybercrime consultant David Sehyun Baek said: decryption “The $1.4 billion size suggests it is a large-scale laundering hub rather than a small-scale operation,” he said, noting that Mixer reaches that size “when so many ransomware teams, darknet markets, and fraud groups rely on it consistently.”

“Being active for nearly a decade indicates operational maturity, including stable infrastructure, automation, and a strong reputation on underground forums,” Baek said.

Baek noted that the immediate operational impact will disrupt the funding workflows of dependent criminal groups, causing “delays, retention and a lot of confusion” as they seek alternative money laundering routes.

But he cautioned that “many talented crew members typically move on to other mixers, cross-chain bridges, or high-risk exchanges within weeks.”

“Short-term frictions are real, especially for high-volume operators, but overall laundering activity is not going away, it’s just changing,” Baek explained.

According to a press release, Europol coordinated the operation through the Joint Cybercrime Task Force (J-CAT) in The Hague, providing on-the-ground forensic support and facilitating information exchange between participating countries during the week of action.

The agency previously supported the closure of Chipmixer, the largest mixing service at the time, in March 2023.

European cryptocurrency crackdown

Europol’s crackdown on cryptomixers is part of Europe’s wider crackdown on crimes using cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this month, police in Cyprus, Spain and Germany, working with Eurojust, arrested nine people in connection with a crypto money laundering network that defrauded victims of $689 million (600 million euros).

Last month, Europol seized $330,000 in cryptocurrencies and arrested seven people as part of the bust of a cybercrime-as-a-service network operating out of Latvia.

Burkhard Mühl, director of Europol’s European Center for Financial and Economic Crime, previously warned that the misuse of cryptocurrencies and blockchain for criminal purposes is “increasingly sophisticated”.

“Investigating these crimes places a heavy burden on law enforcement agencies in EU member states,” Muhl said at the 9th World Conference on Criminal Finance and Cryptoassets in late October.