When criminals steal money, they face a critical problem: how to spend it without getting caught? For nearly a decade, thousands of criminals found their answer in cryptomixer.io – one of the leading online services that specialises in making dirty digital money look clean. Last week, this answer disappeared when international authorities closed the platform for good.
From November 24 to 28, Swiss and German investigators raided facilities in Zurich and dismantled Cryptomixer. It was said to be one of the largest and most notorious crypto mixing services, having facilitated over $1.5 billion in Bitcoin laundering.
The operation seized three computer servers, the cryptomixer.io website, over EUR 25 million in Bitcoins, and a massive 12 terabytes of evidence. After this, authorities posted a notice about the closure of the site, warning criminals that their digital hideout had been nabbed.
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How Criminals Hide Their Digital Footprints
Transactions of cryptocurrencies are permanently recorded on the blockchain, and anyone can trace where money came from and where it went. This creates a huge problem for criminals.
To circumvent this tracking, people with illegal cryptocurrency take the help of mixers. A cryptomixer is a washing machine for dirty cryptocurrency: stolen or illegally earned coins go in it, get tumbled and blended with thousands of legal ones, and they come out spotless with no visible link to their past.
In other words, Cryptomixer worked like a sophisticated shell company. When criminals deposited their cryptocurrency in it, the service threw it into a giant pool with money from other users. After waiting for some time, the service sent the cryptocurrency back to different wallet addresses. This jumbled mess made it impossible for police to connect the incoming dirty money with the outgoing “clean” funds.
Drug dealers, traffickers of weapons, hackers, and other fraudsters use Cryptomixer to obscure their earnings by converting them into cryptocurrency. Once their cryptocurrency is made legitimate by mixing it, they convert it into fiat currency.
Europol, Europe’s police coordination agency, led the operations to nab Cryptomixer. The agency connected with German and Swiss investigators, hosted planning sessions, and sent forensic specialists to assist during the raids.
This marks the second major mixer shutdown Europol has supported. In March 2023, authorities took down Chipmixer, the previous market leader. With Cryptomixer gone, criminals lose one of their most trusted digital hiding spots. Authorities say this is only the beginning of a wider crackdown on crypto crime.
