Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) has seized the online infrastructure and shutdown linked to the eXch cryptocurrency exchange over allegations of money laundering and operating a criminal trading platform.
The operation was carried out on April 30, 2025, authorities said, adding they also confiscated 8 terabytes worth of data and cryptocurrency assets worth €34 million ($38.25 million) in Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Dash.
According to the BKA, eXch[.]cx, existed since 2014 and offered cryptocurrency swapping services, allowing its users to exchange digital assets. It was available both on the clearnet and the dark web.
eXch “specifically advertised on platforms of the criminal underground economy (UE) that it did not implement any anti-money laundering measures,” the BKA said in a statement.
“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.”
Cryptocurrency assets worth an estimated $1.9 billion are estimated to have been transferred using the service since its launch. This also includes a portion of the illicit proceeds gained by North Korean threat actors following the Bybit hack earlier this year.
The development comes as eXch announced its own plans on April 17 to cease their operations effective this month, prompting the authorities to secure “numerous pieces of evidence and leads.”
In a message posted on the BitcoinTalk forum, eXch said it was shutting down after it “received confirmation of information” that the platform is the “subject of an active transatlantic operation aimed at forcibly shutting our project down and prosecuting us for ‘money laundering and terrorism.'”
“The goals we certainly never had in mind were to enable illicit activities such as money laundering or terrorism, as we are being accused of now,” it claimed. “We also have absolutely no motivation to operate a project where we are viewed as criminals. This doesn’t make any sense to us.”
Following the takedown, the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) said in a message that it’s “actively investigating individuals involved in money laundering and other illegal activities through this swap service.”
“We want to make one thing clear: this action is not an attack on privacy. We respect the right to privacy and recognize its importance in the digital age. However, when services are heavily abused to commit crime, we will act,” it added.
“We urge everyone involved in illicit activity to cease immediately. The legal consequences can be serious. Privacy is not the problem – criminal misuse is.”
