• Europol seized assets of cryptocurrency mixer ChipMixer for its alleged involvement in money laundering activities.
• ChipMixer laundered approximately 2.88 billion euros over the past five years.
• The investigation was coordinated by several law enforcement agencies from multiple countries.

Europol Seizes $46M from Crypto Mixer

Law enforcement officials from The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) have seized assets from cryptocurrency mixer ChipMixer amounting to 44.2 million euros ($46 million), on March 15th, 2021. This seizure was due to allegations of money laundering activities conducted by the application since 2017.

ChipMixer Allegedly Laundered $2.88B

ChipMixer is believed to have laundered 152,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $2.88 billion over the past five years, according to law enforcement officials investigating the case. Amongst this sum, 360 BTC ($5.9 million) were allegedly laundered after an exploit resulting in a loss of 372 million dollars suffered by defunct crypto exchange FTX last November 2022, as reported by decentralized finance analyst ZachXBT at the time .

ChipMixer Website Shut Down

The ChipMixer website has been shut down after authorities seized four servers hosting the application and its funds have been transferred into official custody for further investigation purposes.

Money Trail Blocked By Software

ChipMixers’ chief purpose was to block blockchain trails linking criminal activity with their funds; they did so by turning deposited funds into ‘chips’ or small tokens with equivalent value and then mixing them together to anonymize the initial trail of funds. This made it attractive for cybercriminals looking to launder illegal proceeds from criminal activities such as darkweb markets, ransomware groups, illicit goods trafficking and stolen crypto assets procurement of child sexual exploitation material etc., according to Europol investigators citing a “large share” of criminal activity linked back to Chipmixers services..

Investigation Coordinated By Multiple Agencies

This investigation and subsequent enforcement was coordinated by many high-profile law enforcement agencies including Belgian Federal police, Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany, Central Cybercrime Bureau of Poland, Cantonal Police of Zurich Switzerland alongside U.S based counterparts like FBI , Department Of Homeland Security and Department Of Justice all working together towards apprehending those behind Chipmixers operations and bringing them justice