Authorities shut down Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer and seize $46.6 million
- The authorities have seized and taken down the website of ChipMixer
- The cryptomixer was used to launder funds stolen from Binance, Ronin Bridge and FTX
Bitcoin mixer – ChipMixer has been shut down by authorities, according to an announcement from Europol. The operation involved cooperation with regulatory authorities from various countries. The operation also resulted in the seizure of four servers, over 1909.4 Bitcoins (BTC) – over $46.6 million (almost EUR 44.2 million), and 7 TB of data.
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Several agencies are working together to bring down the Bitcoin mixer
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigation and the Department of Justice participated in taking down the platform. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt-Main also led the operations. Others included Belgium’s federal police, Poland’s central cybercrime agency and Switzerland’s cantonal police in Zurich. The press release further states,
“The ChipMixer software blocked the blockchain trail of the funds, making it attractive to cybercriminals looking to launder illicit proceeds from criminal activities such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud.”
Moreover, Europol claims that the Bitcoin mixer, launched in mid-2017, was used to launder over $2.87 billion in cryptocurrencies. A majority of this activity was related to dark web markets, stolen cryptocurrencies, and illegal commodity trading.
In particular, ransomware groups such as Mamba, Dharma, Zeppelin and others use the Bitcoin mixer to launder ill-gotten funds. In addition, the regulatory authorities are investigating the platform’s possible connection to the funds linked to the now bankrupt crypto exchange – FTX. Authorities are investigating whether the mixer was used by hackers to launder FTX’s funds, which totaled $372 million. According to one chain searcher, ZachXBT, the ChipMixer was used for washing 360 BTC of FTX’s funds.
The Bitcoin mixer was also used by hackers to launder money stolen by Ronin Bridge, according to a report by Slowmist. Hackers had sent 26,021.89 BTC to Chipmixer. The same platform was used by Binance hackers in August 2019, with over 5,300 BTC sent for mixing.
The current action has resulted in the site being shut down. However, the inspectorate has not notified any arrests in connection with the case. The press release further states,
“Europol facilitated the exchange of information between national authorities and supported the coordination of the operation. Europol also provided analytical support to link available data to various criminal cases within and outside the EU, and supported the investigation through operational analysis, crypto-tracking and forensic analysis.”
