European cops shut down crypto mixing website that helped launder 1.3 billion euros

A coalition of law enforcement agencies coordinated by Europol announced Monday the shuttering of cryptocurrency laundering service Cryptomixer.

Europol confirmed the seizure in a press release, where it called Cryptomixer “the platform of choice for cybercriminals seeking to launder illegal proceeds from a variety of criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud.”

Since 2016, Europol said, Cryptomixer facilitated the laundering of 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in bitcoin. 

Hackers and other criminals use laundering services such as Cryptomixer to obfuscate and hide the provenance of their cryptocurrency. By design, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are built on public blockchains that allow law enforcement, as well as blockchain intelligence firms such as Chainalysis and Elliptic, to follow the money over time.

Authorities said they seized $25 million euros ($29 million) in bitcoin, along with three servers, 12 terabytes of data, and the official domain cryptomixer.io, which now displays the customary law enforcement seizure splash page. 

According to Europol, the site “facilitated the obfuscation of criminal funds for ransomware groups, underground economy forums and dark web markets,” and claimed its software “blocked the traceability of funds on the blockchain.”

“Deposited funds from various users were pooled for a long and randomised 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,” Europol said.

Cryptomixer offered customers anonymity, such as providing cover for cybercriminals who wanted to launder their crypto before taking the funds to legitimate cryptocurrency exchanges. Europol said the “cleaned” cryptocurrency could be swapped for other cryptocurrencies or fiat cash.

Over the years, authorities have shut down or sanctioned several similar services, such as Tornado Cash, Chipmixer, and others.