BKA sluit 47 cryptobeurzen in Duitsland

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has closed 47 crypto exchanges on which both regular currency and cryptocurrencies could be traded. The BKA announced this in a press release.

The action focused on cracking down on digital money laundering. The operators of these exchanges are accused of not complying with rules and hiding money on a large scale. No KYC (Know-Your-Customer) checks were conducted, allowing users to remain anonymous. A list of the closed platforms is available in the press release.

According to the BKA, these exchanges made it easy to quickly and anonymously exchange cryptocurrencies, which was used to hide the origin of money. In cooperation with the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT), the BKA collected extensive data on users and transactions. This data included information on ransomware groups, darknet traders and botnet operators, all of whom laundered criminally obtained money.

The BKA notes that many of these criminals are abroad, often in countries where they are tolerated or protected, making them difficult to prosecute. Therefore, the BKA is now focusing on the infrastructure they use.

German authorities are making progress in the fight against cryptocurrency. Last year, the BKA seized the servers of ChipMixer, one of the largest cryptomixers on the dark web, and was able to secure 90 million euros.

Recent LKA Sachsen also made headlines when they confiscated 50,000 Bitcoin and later sold them.