Europol and law enforcement agencies in Germany and Switzerland have shut down one of Europe’s largest illicit crypto-mixing operations, seizing €25 million ($27 million) in Bitcoin and confiscating more than 12 terabytes of user data.
The takedown, announced on December 1, marks one of the most extensive actions yet under the EU’s ongoing effort to dismantle services that obscure the flow of criminal funds.
Investigators seized three servers, took control of the cryptomixer(dot)io domain, and replaced the site with a law-enforcement seizure banner. According to Europol, the platform, known as “Cryptomixer,” functioned as a hybrid mixing service on both the clear web and the dark web.
The operation took place between November 24 and 28 in Zurich, with Europol supporting authorities on the ground throughout the action week.
Six-Year-Old Crypto Laundering Service Taken Offline
The agency has been involved in several major anti-mixing operations in recent years, including the March 2023 takedown of ChipMixer, then the largest service of its kind.
This method helped conceal proceeds of drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, payment-card fraud, and cyberattacks, allowing criminals to convert “cleaned” assets back into other cryptocurrencies or fiat currency through exchanges, ATMs, and bank accounts.
Its software pooled deposits for long, randomized periods, then redistributed funds to new addresses designed to break transaction trails.
Crypto-asset service providers are required to apply strict KYC checks, identify the sender and receiver of all transfers, and conduct enhanced due diligence on transactions above €1,000. These measures aim to close regulatory gaps that have historically allowed laundering networks to operate across borders with minimal oversight.
The shutdown comes as the EU tightens its anti-money-laundering framework ahead of major regulatory deadlines. Under new AML rules tied to MiCA, crypto-mixing services are banned across the bloc, and anonymity-enhancing coins such as Monero and Zcash will be prohibited by 2027.
In November, a New York court sentenced Samourai Wallet co-developer Keonne Rodriguez to five years in prison after prosecutors said the service laundered more than $237 million in illicit funds. Notably, Samourai Wallet’s chief technology officer, William Lonergan Hill, was also sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in the mixer activities.
The enforcement climate around mixers has intensified globally. In January 2025, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted three Russian nationals accused of running Blender(dot)io and its successor, Sinbad(dot)io, mixers the Department of Justice says were used by the North Korean Lazarus Group.
