Law enforcement agency, BKA, shuts down anonymous digital trading platform, eXch
In a significant move against cybercrime, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) of the BKA, based in Frankfurt am Main, along with the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), have seized the servers of the cryptocurrency mixing service eXch. The service, which was established in 2014, primarily accepted BTC of criminal origin and allowed users to exchange various cryptocurrencies.
The shutdown occurred around the 30th of April, with the exchange's clearnet and darknet websites going offline a day earlier. The operators of eXch, who see no point in operating in a hostile environment where they become targets of intelligence agencies, had announced the shutdown on bitcointalk.org on the 17th of April.
The operators of eXch are accused of operating a commercial money laundering service and a criminal trading platform on the internet. They originally intended to demonstrate that a well-designed instant exchanger can be more effective than centralized mixers in protecting privacy. However, eXch operated through so-called "mixed pools" where transactions were mixed, making it difficult to trace who exchanged which coins for which.
The investigation revealed that eXch was used by various criminal groups, including the North Korean Lazarus group, to launder money. The BKA confiscated several cryptocurrencies worth 34 million euros from eXch. Interestingly, the BKA did not seize any BTC from the service, but confiscated Ether, Litecoin, and Dash.
The founder or operator of eXch is not identified in the provided search results. The team behind eXch, who sign off with the slogan "Privacy is not a crime," recommends Monero, Dash, Tornado Cash, or BTC CoinJoin for those wishing to protect their privacy.
The operators of eXch believe they are targets of an active transatlantic operation to take them down for alleged money laundering and terrorism. They believe their project became a target due to their refusal to freeze the addresses of the ByBit hackers. Despite the allegations, the exchange has served its purpose, and its founders are leaving in peace while they still can.
This marks a significant victory in the ongoing battle against cybercrime and the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illegal activities. As the world continues to digitalise, it is crucial that such services are held accountable for their actions and that the anonymity they provide is not abused by criminal elements.
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