Germany and Switzerland shut down $1.4B crypto mixer in joint Europol action

According to officials, coordinated searches in Zurich last week seized the cryptomixer.io domain, three servers, more than $27 million (€25 million) in BTC, and 12 terabytes of data. The site, which operated on both the clear web and the dark web, now displays a seizure banner. Crypto‑mixing services attempt to obscure the origin of funds by pooling and shuffling deposits before returning coins that are harder to trace on‑chain.

Investigators say Cryptomixer was a go‑to conduit for proceeds tied to ransomware, dark‑web markets, and payment‑card fraud, helping actors mask flows from drug and weapons trafficking and other offenses. The takedown followed an information‑sharing push through Europol’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J‑CAT) in The Hague, where forensic specialists provided on‑site support during the action week.

Cybercrime consultant David Sehyeon Baek told Decrypt that the reported volume “signals a major laundering hub, not a small operation,” adding that mixers reach that scale only when “many ransomware crews, darknet markets, and fraud groups consistently rely on them.” Staying active for nearly a decade, he said, points to operational maturity — stable infrastructure, automation, and a strong underground reputation.

Baek expects near‑term disruption as dependent groups reroute cash‑out workflows, leading to “delays, stuck funds, and a lot of scrambling.” But he cautioned that laundering rarely disappears: “Most capable crews migrate to other mixers, cross‑chain bridges, or high‑risk exchanges within weeks.”

Europol framed the takedown as part of a broader European clampdown on crypto‑enabled crime. Earlier in November, police in Cyprus, Spain, and Germany, working with Eurojust, arrested nine suspects linked to a network that allegedly laundered $689 million (€600 million). In October, Europol seized $330,000 in crypto and arrested seven people tied to a cybercrime‑as‑a‑service ring based in Latvia. The agency also supported the March 2023 operation against ChipMixer, at the time one of the largest mixing services.

“The misuse of crypto and blockchain for criminal purposes is becoming increasingly sophisticated,” said Burkhard Mühl, head of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre. “Investigating these crimes places a significant burden on EU member‑state law enforcement.”

As GNcrypto wrote previously, at the Oct. 30, 2025 Vienna conference Europol said crypto crime is increasingly professional and transnational, pushing EU agencies to align playbooks and speed data sharing with partners like UNODC and the Basel Institute. The forum formalized channels for case agents and forensics and flagged typical laundering routes — mixer‑hopping, chain bridges, OTC Telegram brokers and small exchanges with weak Travel‑Rule checks. FATF’s 2025 update is widening Travel‑Rule adoption, but gaps remain. For markets, expect stricter KYC in Europe and quicker joint takedowns that shorten the half‑life of stolen funds and raise clawback risk.