Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (BKA) shut down the eXch crypto exchange on April 30, 2025, amid allegations of money laundering and illegal trading. This exchange enabled users to exchange cryptocurrencies anonymously on both the clearnet and the darknet. Today, it finds itself under fire for allegedly laundering nearly $1.9 billion worth of crypto assets. As part of the operation, authorities seized eXch’s infrastructure.
eXch circumvented the need to follow AML guidelines by enabling users to exchange cryptocurrency without providing any identification information. The platform let users get anonymous, and swore up and down that it didn’t save any user data. This lack of public identification meant it was very tempting for criminal use.
A bit of the $1.5 billion crypto stolen from Bybit in Feb. 2025 has been traded through eXch. To put us all on the same page, the Lazarus APT group hacked Bybit on February 21, 2025. The $1.5 billion theft was the largest cryptocurrency hack to date.
In the days leading up to the shutdown, eXch’s management team held emergency board meetings to avert disaster.
"Starting from the date of the merger with a new management team this month, and as a result of some urgent meetings, the majority of us voted to cease and retreat instead of going against strong winds, because none of us want to cause any harm to innocent people or this forum.” - eXch operators
Dr. Benjamin Krause, the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Central Intelligence Agency (ZIT), states that crypto swapping is crucial. Specifically, he claims that as far as the underground economy goes, its effects are “huge”.
"Recently, we received confirmation of information we had previously, thanks to some friends we have even in the state intelligence sector, that our project is the subject of an active transatlantic operation aimed at forcibly shutting our project down and prosecuting us for “money laundering and terrorism.” - eXch operators
The operators further explained their decision to cease operations:
"Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shutdown our infrastructure (attempts that have also been confirmed to be part of this operation), we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT simply because some people misinterpret our goals.” - eXch operators
According to Dr. Benjamin Krause, Chief Public Prosecutor at the Central Intelligence Agency (ZIT), crypto swapping plays a crucial role in the underground economy.
"Crypto swapping is an essential component of the underground economy, used to conceal incriminated funds from illegal activities such as hacking or trading in stolen payment card data, thus making them available to criminals.” - Dr. Benjamin Krause, Chief Public Prosecutor at the Central Intelligence Agency (ZIT)
