Police And Law Enforcement Around The World Agree To Close ChipMixer Crypto Platform, Here's Why

JAKARTA - Police and justice departments from around the world have closed a cryptocurrency platform known as ChipMixer, which has been used by cybercriminals, European police agency Europol announced on Wednesday.

Europol said it had supported German, US, Belgian, Polish and Swiss authorities in dismantling the ChipMixer infrastructure, which also resulted in the capture of assets worth up to 40 million euros ($42.2 million).

ChipMixer, a licenseless cryptocurrency mixing company founded in mid-2017, specializes in mixing or cutting traces related to virtual currency assets.

Cryptocurrency mixing is a process of merging crypto transactions from several different users into one, making it difficult to trace the origins and objectives of each of these transactions. This can be used by people who want to hide their transaction identities or activities, including cybercriminals who want to launder money from their crimes.

ChipMixer provides cryptocurrency mixing services automatically and anonymously, combining transactions from several different users. However, in March 2023, this platform was already closed by police authorities and justice from several countries because it was used by cybercriminals to launder proceeds from crime.

In addition, the reason for closing the ChipMixer is because it has been widely used by cybercriminals to launder proceeds from crime. ChipMixer provides an anonymous and automated cryptocurrency mixing service, which allows users to hide their transaction origins or purposes.

However, this poses serious problems for law enforcement authorities as cryptocurrency mixing can be used to hide crime activities, such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud.