German authorities have shut down 47 cryptocurrency exchanges for their role in facilitating criminal activity, according to a joint statement from the Central Office for Internet Crime Combat (ZIT) and the Federal Criminal Office (BKA).
Authorities shut down the exchanges after determining they were involved in money laundering. ZIT and BKA claim that the platforms allowed users to anonymously exchange cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, concealing the source of the illicit funds.
According to the authorities, failure to comply with legal requirements is a direct violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
These exchanges allow trading without requiring users to register or verify their identity, violating Know Your Customer (KYC) principles. Authorities explained that such anonymous exchange services are an important part of cybercriminal operations.
Criminals, including ransomware groups, darknet traders and botnet operators, were reportedly using these platforms to convert illicit funds into regular currency.
In addition to shutting down the exchange, German law enforcement authorities have secured extensive user and trading data, with the authorities aiming to dismantle the infrastructure that supports cybercrime through these measures.
Officials said:
“For years, the operators of these criminal exchange services have led people to believe that their hosting is undetectable, that they do not store any customer data, and that all data is deleted immediately after the transaction.
We found and seized their servers: development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data, which means we have your data: transactions, registration data, IP addresses.”
The crackdown comes as German authorities step up efforts to combat illegal cryptocurrency activity: Recently, the BKA worked with US authorities to seize the domain of Cryptonator, a platform found to have inadequate anti-money laundering measures.
In January, the BKA seized 50,000 bitcoins from a pirate website that had been shut down since 2013. These assets were then sold in a month-long sell-off in July.
Additionally, German authorities recovered €90 million after taking down ChipMixer. Other notable actions include the takedown of Qakbot in 2023 and Emotet in 2021.
