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U.S. and German authorities introduced Wednesday that they’ve shuttered ChipMixer, a cryptocurrency service that allegedly laundered greater than US$3 billion in crypto since 2017.

See associated tales: US$4B in money laundering happened on DEXs, bridges and coin swaps: Elliptic

Fast info

• ChipMixer has been used to launder greater than US$3 billion in illicit transactions by ransomware teams, suspected North Korean hackers, and darknet market customers since 2017, said the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
• Authorities from Germany and the U.S. have seized as much as US$46.3 million in crypto from ChipMixer, according to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).
• ChipMixer, an unlicensed crypto mixer created in mid-2017, specialised in mixing or slicing trails associated to digital foreign money property, Europol stated. Coin mixers like ChipMixer allegedly allowed criminals to obfuscate the supply of stolen cryptocurrency. 
• The platform processed US$700 million in stolen funds in connection to 2 North Korean cyberattacks towards the net sport Axie Infinity and Horizon Bridge, stated the DOJ. 
• U.S. prosecutors in Philadelphia charged Minh Quốc Nguyễn, a 49-year-old from Vietnam, for working an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise and identification theft. 
• In May 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on digital foreign money mixer Blender.io, accusing it of supporting North Korea’s money-laundering operations. In August of the identical 12 months, Tornado Cash was additionally sanctioned for allegedly laundering digital foreign money price US$7 billion.

See associated story: India imposes money laundering regulations on crypto industry