The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Frankfurt Prosecutor’s Office have dismantled the cryptocurrency platform eXch, confiscating €34 million (approximately $38 million) in digital assets. This operation is the third-largest crypto-related seizure in Germany’s history. eXch, active since 2014, allowed users to exchange major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Dash (DASH) without identity verification, explicitly lacking Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls. Authorities allege the platform facilitated over $1.09 billion in transactions and served as a conduit for laundering funds from several high-profile crypto hacks, most notably the $1.04 billion Bybit exploit.
The crackdown occurred on April 30, just before eXch’s publicized closure date, securing over eight terabytes of server data and infrastructure based in Germany. eXch’s operators are under investigation for alleged money laundering and running a criminal trading platform, though no arrests have been reported to date. The case shines a spotlight on the regulatory vulnerabilities of platforms with weak compliance, signaling that increased scrutiny and enforcement action may be on the horizon for similar services. Previous enforcement actions in Germany have targeted comparable crypto entities lacking AML frameworks.
User response has so far been subdued, but the incident underlines the importance of compliance for crypto service providers and is expected to have ripple effects across the broader market.