In a bold move, the German government has clamped down on 47 cryptocurrency exchanges that were allegedly facilitating an “underground economy” for cybercriminals. According to a statement from the country’s law enforcement agencies, the exchanges are believed to have masked large-scale criminal funds under the guise of lawful financial transactions.
Investigators claim these domains were used by botnet operators, ransomware and black market traders in their covert operations. The schemers leveraged exchange services to transform illicit funds into regular currencies seamlessly. In a stern warning displayed on the seized sites, German authorities said, “We have found their servers and seized them…We have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses. Our search for traces begins. See you soon.”
However, a full-scale prosecution may be challenging as many criminals using these sites are based overseas, some even granted sanctuary by their respective countries. One of the seized platforms, Xchange.cash, reportedly handled nearly 1.3 million transactions for over 400,000 users since 2012. Other seized sites included 60cek.org, Baksman.com, and Prostocash.com, all boasting high user and transaction statistics.
Interestingly, the German government was a high-profile Bitcoin holder until recently, selling nearly 50,000 Bitcoin worth $3.15 billion that it confiscated from piracy site Movie2k.to back in 2020. This case serves as a further cautionary note for crypto users and a call for increased scrutiny and regulation in the digital currency realm.