German authorities shut down crypto exchange eXch, seizing 34 million euros ($38 million) in tokens and more than 8 terabytes of data in one of the country’s largest law-enforcement actions targeting suspected crypto laundering.
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) dismantled the eXch’s server infrastructure on April 30, just one day before the platform’s operators had planned to shut it down, according to statement released on Thursday.
The authorities cited the platform’s suspected use in laundering hundreds of millions in stolen crypto from major breaches — including the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, the $243 million Genesis creditor theft and numerous phishing drainer campaigns.
The platform “specifically advertised on platforms of the criminal underground economy that it did not implement anti-money laundering measures,” according to an automated translation of the release. “Users were neither required to identify themselves to the service, nor was user data stored there. Crypto swapping via eXch was therefore particularly suitable for concealing financial flows.”
The crackdown follows years of allegations that eXch, which has operated since 2014 at “eXch(dot)cx” and other domains, intentionally ignored anti-money laundering protocols, maintained no user identification requirements and marketed itself on darknet forums as an anonymous, high-speed crypto-mixing service.
The service supported swaps between bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and dash (DASH) without any registration.
The investigators say that over $1.9 billion in crypto flowed through eXch during its lifetime, much of it believed to be criminal proceeds.
The takedown adds to a growing list of regulatory strikes on illicit crypto infrastructure across Europe, following similar crackdowns on services like ChipMixer, Sinbad and Hydra over the past two years.