The German and US authorities, with the support of Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, have disabled the infrastructure of the ChipMixer cryptocurrency mixer. This is reported Europol.
As part of the investigation, law enforcement officers confiscated 1909.4 BTC, which was valued at €44.2 million ($46.3 million).
“The ChipMixer software concealed the trail of funds on the blockchain, making it attractive to cybercriminals seeking to launder illicit proceeds,” Europol said in a report.
Authorities also seized four servers that contained more than 7 TB of data.
Founded in 2017, the ChipMixer platform has helped launder more than 152,000 BTC (about $2.88 billion according to Europol estimates) during its existence, according to the statement.
The agency said that most of these funds are associated with darknet services, ransomware, as well as drug and weapons trafficking.
In addition, information obtained after the closure of Hydra revealed the connection between ChipMixer and the darknet marketplace. Law enforcement officers recorded several chains of transactions totaling “millions of euros”.
The cryptomixer also helped launder money for ransomware operators Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma and Lockbit.
Authorities suggest that some of the digital assets stolen after the bankruptcy of an unnamed “major crypto exchange” in 2022 passed through ChipMixer.
Recall that in August 2022, a hacker who hacked the Ronin sidechain used ChipMixer to hide part of the withdrawn funds.
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The German and US authorities, with the support of Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, have disabled the infrastructure of the ChipMixer cryptocurrency mixer. This is reported Europol.
As part of the investigation, law enforcement officers confiscated 1909.4 BTC, which was valued at €44.2 million ($46.3 million).
“The ChipMixer software concealed the trail of funds on the blockchain, making it attractive to cybercriminals seeking to launder illicit proceeds,” Europol said in a report.
Authorities also seized four servers that contained more than 7 TB of data.
Founded in 2017, the ChipMixer platform has helped launder more than 152,000 BTC (about $2.88 billion according to Europol estimates) during its existence, according to the statement.
The agency said that most of these funds are associated with darknet services, ransomware, as well as drug and weapons trafficking.
In addition, information obtained after the closure of Hydra revealed the connection between ChipMixer and the darknet marketplace. Law enforcement officers recorded several chains of transactions totaling “millions of euros”.
The cryptomixer also helped launder money for ransomware operators Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma and Lockbit.
Authorities suggest that some of the digital assets stolen after the bankruptcy of an unnamed “major crypto exchange” in 2022 passed through ChipMixer.
Recall that in August 2022, a hacker who hacked the Ronin sidechain used ChipMixer to hide part of the withdrawn funds.
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Cryplogger Newsletters: Keep your finger on the pulse of the bitcoin industry!
