The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) has shut down the Bitcoin mixing service ChipMixer, as introduced in an announcement on March 15.
ChipMixer dealt with $3 billion of illicit crypto
The DOJ stated that ChipMixer has been used to launder greater than $3 billion of illicit cryptocurrency transactions since August 2017.
That whole contains $17 million of ransomware transactions, $200 million of darknet market transactions, $35 million of transfers tied to fraudulent knowledge gross sales, and an unspecified quantity of transactions tied to a state-backed Russian malware marketing campaign.
The DOJ additionally famous that the platform has been used to deal with $700 million in connection to 2 blockchain “heists” towards Ronin Bridge and Horizon Bridge.
Regulation enforcement within the U.S. seized two net domains that directed guests to ChipMixer and one GitHub account that hosted undertaking code. Police in Germany moreover seized the undertaking’s back-end servers and $46 million price of cryptocurrency.
One particular person charged in case
One particular person — Vietnam resident Minh Quốc Nguyễn — has been charged within the case.
Nguyễn launched ChipMixer in 2017 and paid for the providers essential to run the platform by utilizing faux identities. He additionally promoted the service on-line and advocated towards anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) measures.
He now faces expenses of cash laundering, id theft, and working an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise.
Nguyễn has been charged in Philadelphia. He probably faces 40 years in jail.
Actions towards different coin mixers
U.S. authorities have additionally taken measures towards different coin mixers. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Ethereum-based coin mixer Twister Money in August 2022.
Previous to that, the Treasury sanctioned a lesser-known mixer referred to as Blender in Could 2022. Latest reviews from blockchain surveillance agency Elliptic recommend that the platform could have been rebranded in an effort to function beneath the identify Sinbad.
Although coin mixers are used for unlawful actions, enforcement actions have been met with controversy because of the truth that mixers have official privateness functions.