European Union law enforcement just shut down a crypto-mixing service in Switzerland, confiscating over 12 terabytes of data and more than €25 million ($29.055 million) worth of Bitcoin (BTC).
Europol worked with local Swiss and German police agencies to seize servers and the domain associated with “Cryptomixer.io,” which allegedly obfuscated illegal funds for ransomware groups and dark web markets.
The law enforcement agencies also placed a seizure banner on the mixer’s website.
Europol says Cryptomixer’s software, which blocked the traceability of funds on the blockchain, was utilized by drug and weapons traffickers, ransomware exploiters, money launderers and payment card fraudsters.
“Deposited funds from various users were pooled for a long and randomized period before being redistributed to destination addresses, again at random times. As many digital currencies provide a public ledger of all transactions, mixing services make it difficult to trace specific coins, thus concealing the origin of cryptocurrency.
Mixing services such as Cryptomixer offer their clients anonymity and are often used before criminals redirect their laundered assets to cryptocurrency exchanges. This allows ‘cleaned’ cryptocurrency to be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies or for fiat currency through cash machines or bank accounts.”
The platform, created in 2016, allegedly mixed €1.3 billion ($1.627 billion) worth of BTC.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Kiselev Andrey Valerevich