Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Agency (aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) has seized and shut down an online infrastructure linked to an exchange cryptocurrency exchange over allegations of money laundering and operating a criminal trading platform.
Authorities said the operation took place on April 30, 2025, adding that it confiscated 8 terabytes worth of data and cryptocurrency assets worth 34 million euros ($38.25 million) of Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Dash.
According to BKA, the exchange[.]CX has been around since 2014 and offers cryptocurrency swapping services, allowing users to exchange digital assets. It was available on both ClearNet and Dark Web.
The BKA said in a statement.
“The users were not required to identify themselves in the service, nor were their user data stored there. Therefore, crypto exchanges through exchanges were particularly well suited to concealing financial flows.”
It is estimated that cryptocurrency assets worth an estimated $1.9 billion have been transferred using the service since their launch. This also includes some of the illegal revenues acquired by North Korean threat actors following the Buybit Hack earlier this year.
The development comes when it announced its own plan on April 17th to shut down this month’s operations, prompting authorities to secure “a large number of evidence and leads.”
In a message posted to the Bitcointalk forum, Exch said it was shutting down after it received an “review of information” that the platform was “a subject to an aggressive transatlantic project aimed at forcing the project to close and prosecute us for “money laundering and terrorism.”
“A goal that we certainly didn’t have in mind was to enable illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorism, as we are now accused.” “We also have no motivation to run projects that are considered criminals. This makes no sense to us.”
Following the takedown, the Dutch Financial Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) said that “through this swap service we are actively investigating individuals involved in money laundering and other illegal activities.”
“We want to clarify one thing. This action is not an attack on privacy. We respect our right to privacy and recognize its importance in the digital age. But when services are heavily abused to commit crimes, we will act,” he added.
“We urge everyone involved in illegal activities to stop immediately. Legal consequences can be serious. Privacy is not an issue. Criminal misuse is.”
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