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German authorities confiscated 34 million euros ($38 million) in cryptocurrency from eXch, a cryptocurrency platform purportedly utilized to launder assets stolen following Bybit’s unprecedented $1.4 billion breach.
The confiscation, announced on May 9 by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the chief prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, encompassed multiple digital currencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH). This action represents the third-largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the BKA.
Additionally, the authorities confiscated eXch’s German server infrastructure, which contained over eight terabytes of data, and deactivated the platform, the announcement elaborated.
eXch conducted crypto exchanges without AML
In the announcement, the BKA characterized eXch as a “swapping” service that permitted users to trade various cryptocurrency assets without enforcing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) protocols.
The platform had been operational since 2014 and was reported to have facilitated approximately $1.9 billion in cryptocurrency transactions, some of which were thought to be of “criminal origin,” including assets laundered during the Bybit breach.
“Among other factors, a segment of the $1.5 billion pilfered from the Bybit crypto exchange, hacked on Feb. 21, 2025, is claimed to have been exchanged through eXch,” the authorities stated.
Multisig, FixedFloat among money laundering incidents
According to remarks by crypto investigator ZachXBT, eXch was also implicated in laundering millions from other cryptocurrency heists and exploits, including Multisig, FixedFloat, and the $243 million Genesis creditor theft.
These were in addition to “numerous phishing drainer services over the previous few years with a refusal to block addresses and freeze mandates,” ZachXBT noted.
ZachXBT was among the initial security analysts to report on eXch’s connections to laundering $35 million of crypto assets stolen from Bybit shortly after the hack was verified.
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“Lazarus Group transferred 5K ETH from the Bybit Hack to a new address and commenced laundering assets via eXch (a centralized mixer) and bridging funds to Bitcoin via Chainflip,” ZachXBT wrote in a Telegram post on Feb. 22.
eXch declared cessation of services by May 1
After initially denying participation in laundering assets from the Bybit breach, eXch ultimately announced it would discontinue operations by May 1 in a Bitcoin Talk post published in mid-April.
“Even though we have managed to operate despite some unsuccessful attempts to dismantle our infrastructure […], we don’t see any value in functioning in a hostile atmosphere where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] merely due to some individuals misinterpreting our intentions,” it stated.
Commenting on the seizure, senior public prosecutor Benjamin Krause emphasized the necessity of measures against “swift and anonymous avenues for money laundering for any quantity.”
“Crypto swapping serves as a vital facet of the underground economy, utilized to obscure tainted funds from unlawful activities such as hacking or trading in pilfered credit card data, thereby rendering them accessible to perpetrators,” he asserted.
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