[ANN] ChipMixer.com - Bitcoin mixer / Bitcoin tumbler - mixing reinvented

[DireWolfM14]

Only press release I can find at the moment: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/one-of-darkwebs-largest-cryptocurrency-laundromats-washed-out

1900 BTC seized and 7TB of data. Chipmixer was supposed to not keep much data, and I really can't imagine they did. Hopefully (and probably??) not identifying data.

This is quite disturbing.  I would have assumed the servers were located somewhere beyond the reach of European and US authorities.  According to that article, 1,909.4 bitcoins were also seized along with the servers.  The way chipmixer was operated would suggest that the bitcoin and the data would be more secure than that, so I hope the article is wrong.

At least now, with some relative certainty, we can put to rest the accusation that Chipmixer was a NSA honeypot.  

Another development, searching for "chipmixer" on google doesn't provide any of the previous scam sites in the results.

[nioctib_100]

Another development, searching for "chipmixer" on google doesn't provide any of the previous scam sites in the results.

I'm just seeing more and more news articles on Google at the moment. No new info anywhere though yet. Nothing says anyone was arrested, just servers and Bitcoin seized.

[btctarun]

Any one have any news on how to retrieve the bitcoins deposited to chip mixer….. or can we claim our assets to German Authorities.

[macson]

Holy shit...

sorry, it seems i did not try "mixing button" first.

[LoyceV]

Any one have any news on how to retrieve the bitcoins deposited to chip mixer….. or can we claim our assets to German Authorities.

I'm curious about that too. Many people used ChipMixer for privacy, which (still) isn't illegal. But if you're going to claim your vouchers back from the German authorities, your privacy will be gone.

[NotATether]

Any one have any news on how to retrieve the bitcoins deposited to chip mixer….. or can we claim our assets to German Authorities.

I'm curious about that too. Many people used ChipMixer for privacy, which (still) isn't illegal. But if you're going to claim your vouchers is back from the German authorities, your privacy will be gone.

How will that even be possible. They will just prosecute you for being a user of ChipMixer, they don't really care about who exactly is using the service. From their point of view (and Pennsylvania's, whose court issued the seize warrant in the first place), everyone's a criminal for using it.

Will the real Chipmixer please stand up?

Edit:

Yeah, the government gestapo won't be able to seize the TOR site, they would need access to the chipmixer server for that.  Obviously they wouldn't be able to do that.

Oof.... very bad timing.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I'm curious about that too. Many people used ChipMixer for privacy, which (still) isn't illegal. But if you're going to claim your vouchers back from the German authorities, your privacy will be gone.

Privacy is secondary. If I had vouchers, which I fortunately don't, I'd just want my property back.

[Murat]

bad news for signature participants! 

[DireWolfM14]

bad news for signature participants! 

It's bad news for privacy proponents.  Jobs come and go, but reliable and trustworthy mixing services are few and far between.  Let's hope that Chipmixer didn't actually suffer any losses, and they'll be back with new servers in a more secure location.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Let's hope that Chipmixer didn't actually suffer any losses, and they'll be back with new servers in a more secure location.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but gaining access to the onion private key pretty much means shit has hit the fan.

[btctarun]

Any one have any news on how to retrieve the bitcoins deposited to chip mixer….. or can we claim our assets to German Authorities.

I'm curious about that too. Many people used ChipMixer for privacy, which (still) isn't illegal. But if you're going to claim your vouchers back from the German authorities, your privacy will be gone.

I am not afraid of German or US authorities…. I have proof of purchase of coins…. I just need to get them back.

[nioctib_100]

I don't want to be pessimistic, but gaining access to the onion private key pretty much means shit has hit the fan.

"German investigators said that the FBI is seeking the chief suspect, whom they didn't identify." From this article: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-investigators-crypto-money-laundering-site-97879857

Chipmixer is still out there!


Nevermind, it's over. They got him: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-investigation-leads-takedown-darknet-cryptocurrency-mixer-processed-over-3. What a wild ride.

Nevermind again. He's wanted and identified, but not yet caught: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/minh-quoc-nguyen

[Renampun]

I don't want to be pessimistic, but gaining access to the onion private key pretty much means shit has hit the fan.

...
Nevermind, it's over. They got him: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-investigation-leads-takedown-darknet-cryptocurrency-mixer-processed-over-3. What a wild ride.

Coinciding with the ChipMixer takedown efforts, Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, was charged today in Philadelphia with money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and identity theft, connected to the operation of ChipMixer.

“This morning, working with partners at home and abroad, the Department of Justice disabled a prolific cryptocurrency mixer, which has fueled ransomware attacks, state-sponsored crypto-heists and darknet purchases across the globe,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Today’s coordinated operation reinforces our consistent message: we will use all of our authorities to protect victims and take the fight to our adversaries. Cybercrime seeks to exploit boundaries, but the Department of Justice’s network of alliances transcends borders and enables disruption of the criminal activity that jeopardizes our global cybersecurity.”

“Together, with our international partners at HSI The Hague, we are firmly committed to identifying and investigating cyber criminals who pose a serious threat to our economic security by laundering billions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency under the misguided anonymity of the darknet,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of Homeland Securities Investigations (HSI) Arizona. “HSI Arizona could not be more proud to work alongside every agent involved in this complex international case. We thank all our domestic and international partners for their support.”

Nguyễn is charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, money laundering and identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

based on the article you included this should be in the spotlight, chipmixer is just a service, not a perpetrator, and nguyen can still appeal on their claim.

[Stedsm]

bad news for signature participants!  

It's bad news for privacy proponents.  Jobs come and go, but reliable and trustworthy mixing services are few and far between.  Let's hope that Chipmixer didn't actually suffer any losses, and they'll be back with new servers in a more secure location.

IIRC, Chipmixer had been the only service running after few old mixers got seized and their services ended!
Then recently I've heard some more mixers named YoMix and Coinomize, I thought they're here to compete Chipmixer but never thought that this would end up like this for CM. Would wait on more info by Chipmixer team on this that whether any arrests have been made (as they're claiming "washed out" and at some places, busted) or just the BTC and data?

[james3441]

Turns out chipmixer claims were a scam.
Even my chips which I had in chipmixer service for which they claimed to "delete private" keys after 7 days or whatever, were seized/transfered.
and these transactions took place good 3 months ago.

You can assume that they stored history on everything including input and outputs and this data is now in LE hands. Although in most countries using services like this is perfectly legal and they cannot accuse you of anything. Receiving coins that someone else obfuscated via CM and sent to you is also not illegal. You have to be proven that you did obfuscate these coins yourself, which is a hard case, assuming you used VPNs/TOR while using CM website. Regarding the data, even if they have now all historical transaction data, it is nothing new. All chipmixer addresses and transactions were easily visible in the blockchain even without the seizure of data - due to the unique chip size and very schematic process.

The operator of the website has a bigger problem cause they're gonna put him into jail for ages for creating this. Chipmixer grew too big and was part of ransomware schemas including high-profile hacks of North Korea. They accepted it and did not try to prevent it. Additionally, they refused to respond to LE contact when they seeked information in these cases by contacting chipmixer.

DOJ/FBI claims the operator of the website was identified due to OPSEC mistake where he sent funds to one of Paypal accounts associated with CM from his real identified Paypal account. Check page 32 of indictment. They digged very deep and even successfully probed ProtonMail for information, not a real surprise considering how big and popular the chipmixer service was.

They were also able to identify server serving TOR website hosted in Hetzner, it is not disclosed how they managed to find out the real IP address of .onion website. After finding the server they probed the PayPal account which funded the hosting service, checked the logs and found out chipmixer operator identity and now they can prove it was directly linked to funding chipmixer infrastructure/operations.

The amount of the charges he got is not really big for the scale of the service.

[LeGaulois]

IIRC, Chipmixer had been the only service running after few old mixers got seized and their services ended!

Nope
[banned mixer] for exemple is older than ChipMixer.com

Only 2 mixers have been seized:
- Helix, back in 2017
- Bestmixer, back in 2019, long after Chipmixer launched

All other have just disappeared, and 1 changed its mind about mixing bitcoins (I'm refering to Bitmixer.io)

[Lucius]

~snip~
Even my chips which I had in chipmixer service for which they claimed to "delete private" keys after 7 days or whatever, were seized/transfered.
and these transactions took place good 3 months ago.

It seems that you are right, whoever had vouchers or chips was left without them. I checked some old wallets older than 1 year that only contained chips from CM, and they were all emptied. Yes, it's a bit stupid that I didn't spend them, but honestly I forgot about a few $ in those old wallets. It's really strange that it wasn't all deleted, but now we at least know where even 7GB of data came from.

[NotATether]

Side note

Does anyone else find it weird that:

- Three large US banks failed by bank run within a short span of each other <-- mostly by losing your own money
- Each of those banks had a lot of clients who got screwed out of their money
- Fed does not punish, fine, or open criminal cases against the banks nor the executive leadership
- Fed attempts to bail out some of those banks, with your tax money (!)
- Silicon Valley Bank boss even says it's just "business as usual" to clients (!!!)

Whereas:

- Efficient (as in cannot lose money if used properly) crypto mixer gets coins mixed from hacker groups
- Action is taken to seize the mixer pronto
- Arrests the developer and (will probably) puts him on trial
- Keeps user funds to themselves presumably to sell at auction (!)

You guys should know, that all governments are biased against crypto. They will never do anything about their own rotten fiat companies, though.

I have been bitten by my share of scams in my history here, but if there is something you should learn, it is that corrupt authority, in its various shapes and sizes, is the biggest scammer of them all.

[I do not possess any CM vouchers]

[shasan]

Many people used ChipMixer for privacy, which (still) isn't illegal. But if you're going to claim your vouchers back from the German authorities, your privacy will be gone.

I am afraid now. We are trying to use crypto and we are getting obstacle day by day. If we overcome one obstacle we face two. Recently crypto stared to rise but this time we have heard this. Maximum people use bitcoin for their safety and for this current situation almost all are in afraid mood.

[DireWolfM14]

I am afraid now.

So are the FEDs!  Their own institutions are failing and dropping like flies.  Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank...  Calling these institutions banks is actually a joke; they are dispensaries of fraudulently printed fiat, who've focused on spending our wealth on woke ideologies with absolutely no recourse.  If the FED wants to minimize the damage they caused, they'll have to harass the people.  And the ones they'll harass first are the ones that figured out how to strip them of their power; us bitcoiners!