Germany shuts down ‘world’s largest’ crypto launderer

German authorities said Wednesday they had taken down the "world's largest" money laundering site for cryptocurrency, seizing millions of euros' worth of bitcoin in the process.

Published: 15 March 2023 17:25 CET

A website displays information on the value of various cryptocurrencies. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Karl-Josef Hildenbrand

Law enforcement officials secured around €44 million of the digital currency in the move against online platform ChipMixer, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Working together with authorities in the United States and Europol, investigators also seized the servers belonging to the “darknet” site.

ChipMixer’s operators are suspected of “commercial money laundering and running a criminal trading platform on the internet”, the German authorities said.

The site is said to have accepted criminally obtained bitcoin to pay it out again after it had undergone “mixing” to conceal its origin.

ChipMixer promised users “complete anonymity”, according to investigators.

The service, in operation since the middle of 2017, is estimated to have laundered “around 154,000 bitcoin” worth about €2.8 billion, they said.

Much of it came “from ransomware groups and from other criminal activities”, officials said.

ChipMixer was “the world’s largest money-laundering service on the darknet”, they said.

The secret “darknet” includes websites that can be accessed only with specific software or authorisations, ensuring anonymity for users.

German and US authorities have recently worked together to act against criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies.

Last year, authorities in the two countries shut down Hydra, an anonymous, illicit online marketplace, which also operated on the darknet.

Transactions from Hydra worth “millions” were found on ChipMixer, investigators said.

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Under the new rules, foreigners could face deportation for social media comments that glorify or condone a single terrorist act, according to a draft law agreed by the cabinet.

At the moment, it is necessary to express support for several acts.

After Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, there was a surge in hate posts on social media in Germany with officials saying Islamists in particular were responsible.

The fatal stabbing last month of a police officer by an Afghan asylum seeker in Mannheim also triggered a surge of such posts, fuelling the debate on deportations.

“It is very clear to us that Islamist agitators who are mentally living in the Stone Age have no place in our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Funke media group, ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.

“Anyone who does not have a German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must — wherever possible — be expelled”.

Glorifying acts of terror online fuels a climate of violence that can encourage extremists and violent criminals, according to the draft law, which still needs to be passed by parliament.

Convictions have already been made over some social media posts. An imam in Munich was this month fined 4,500 euros ($4,800) for posting on Facebook that “everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October”, on the day of the Hamas attack.

In parliament following the Mannheim attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called for those who celebrate acts of terror to face deportation.

Glorifying terrorist offences amounted to a “slap in the face for the victims, their families and our democratic order”, he said.