Swiss Illegal Cryptocurrency Mixing Service Shut Down (europa.eu)
(Monday December 01, 2025 @10:30PM (BeauHD)
from the cease-and-desist dept.)
- Reference: 0180254641
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/12/02/0042253/swiss-illegal-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-shut-down
- Source link: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/europol-and-partners-shut-down-cryptomixer
Longtime Slashdot reader [1]krouic shares a report from Europol:
> From November 24-28, 2025, Europol [2]supported an action week conducted by law enforcement authorities from Switzerland and Germany in Zurich, Switzerland. The operation focused on taking down the illegal cryptocurrency mixing service Cryptomixer, which is suspected of facilitating cybercrime and money laundering. Three servers were seized in Switzerland, along with the cryptomixer.io domain. The operation resulted in the confiscation of over 12 terabytes of data and more than EUR 25 million worth of Bitcoin. After the illegal service was taken over and shut down, law enforcement placed a seizure banner on the website.
Authorities allege that the mixing service laundered over 1.3 billion euros in bitcoin since 2016.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~krouic
[2] https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/europol-and-partners-shut-down-cryptomixer
> From November 24-28, 2025, Europol [2]supported an action week conducted by law enforcement authorities from Switzerland and Germany in Zurich, Switzerland. The operation focused on taking down the illegal cryptocurrency mixing service Cryptomixer, which is suspected of facilitating cybercrime and money laundering. Three servers were seized in Switzerland, along with the cryptomixer.io domain. The operation resulted in the confiscation of over 12 terabytes of data and more than EUR 25 million worth of Bitcoin. After the illegal service was taken over and shut down, law enforcement placed a seizure banner on the website.
Authorities allege that the mixing service laundered over 1.3 billion euros in bitcoin since 2016.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~krouic
[2] https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/europol-and-partners-shut-down-cryptomixer
Color me curious.... (Score:2)
What possible legal use does a "mixing service" provide?
Crypto transactions are already almost entirely comprised of cash flows to support illegal activities. Help me understand why we should give a crap about the shutdown of a mixing service.
Best,
Re: (Score:2)
Crypto transactions can be traced back through the (public) blockchain. A service where you deposit some tainted crypto and then are handed an equal value of others (minus a service charge) makes tracing those new coins back to their (illicit) source very difficult.
IOW, money laundering.
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:2)
Can you think of legal uses where you deposit untainted crypto just because you want privacy? Should that be shut down because it's also used for money laundering? Are you attacking a symptom that has multiple causes, as if only one of the causes matters and screw the rest of the perfectly legal uses?
Re: (Score:2)
> Can you think of legal uses where you deposit untainted crypto just because you want privacy? Should that be shut down because it's also used for money laundering? Are you attacking a symptom that has multiple causes, as if only one of the causes matters and screw the rest of the perfectly legal uses?
I suspect it's about the ratio of illegal users to legitimate ones that made it a target. Assume the Swiss and Germans were able o track the incoming sources they could identify patterns of suspect transaction and thus decided to shut it down.
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
Just how much trust are you willing to place in authority? Is ICE good because it's a government authority? Should Trump kill all boaters because some are satisfying a demand as goid capitalists should?
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
Would you be happier if I'd run my response through ChatGPT first?
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
Why should drugs be illegal in the first place?
Are you saying that Republicans who fight disclosure of donor lists to their pet causes are funding illegal activities?
Re: (Score:2)
> Why should drugs be illegal in the first place?
> Are you saying that Republicans who fight disclosure of donor lists to their pet causes are funding illegal activities?
They're politicians, so adding in funding illegal activities is redundant.
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
What if I want to buy drugs because prohibition is stupid and just makes me want to use drugs more to escape the stupid reality stupid politicians force on me?
Re: (Score:1)
Given that most Bitcoin investors are just speculative hobbyists, a mixing service is a fun toy! Kind of like when all the open source nerds signed their emails with public keys so strong encrypted email was a fun hobby and totally not a way for organized criminals to communicate.
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
Was Assange an organized criminal or a journalist?
Re: (Score:2)
Neither, he ran a website and and in his zeal to disrupt America willingly became a political prop for the ruling US regime. Idealistic rebel turned useful idiot, common story.
Re: Color me curious.... (Score:1)
Are you saying encryption should be banned for Assange's own good?
Re: (Score:2)
> Given that most Bitcoin investors are just speculative hobbyists, a mixing service is a fun toy! Kind of like when all the open source nerds signed their emails with public keys so strong encrypted email was a fun hobby and totally not a way for organized criminals to communicate.
I suspect most of those speculative hobbyists aren't simply giving up a percentage of their holdings to use a fun toy; if you're speculating why give up a % of your return when you get no value from it? As for PGP and its ilk, there are probably a lot more legitimate users, which is why law enforcement used other means, such a taking over services clandestinely to be able to track organized crime; just like wiretaps allowed targeting suspected criminals without eliminating telephones. That's not to say go