ChipMixer.com has been seized.

[LeGaulois]

The second domain is still up and doing a redirect, not seized at all, they were known scams, how did they reach the conclusion they were the same?

Secrets have to stay secret, otherwise it's not a secret anymore

guess why both domains are not listed here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5381839.0

I'm joking, but just half.

both domains are off now by the way, it was a matter of hours

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[stompix]

both domains are off now by the way, it was a matter of hours

My bad, I saw it online and did the newbie mistake of mixing the chipmixerS domain with chipmixer on that list, since I thought it was online I was already sure it wasn't part of the original.
Makes me curious to see how many of them are still online now, but I'm not at my computer to check all those damn clones.

[dkbit98]

Given how many selfies they include of him in the press release report at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download, I'd wager a terabyte or two are just his own personal photos  

I guess people still trust their iPhone devices with their ''safe and secure'' iCloud diligently taking selfies and saving exact locations all the time  

In most cases, a Vietnamese guy who has Europol and the US after him would make a break for the border with Vietnam-China. Given Minh's history in Taiwan though, I wouldn't think China would welcome him with very open arms, so it wouldn't be smart to go there. A lot of places to disappear to in that region of the world though.

There is no way anyone would go to China to find freedom and protection, but there are several countries that don't have any signed extradition agreement with United States.
If we know what US government did with Ross from Silk Road, I can only imagine how many life sentences and punishment they would stick on some guy from Vietnam

PS
I almost forgot to say, thank you CZ and Binance once again for your cooperation with government officials, and making everyone ''safu''.

[Synchronice]

Ah, this is a very sad news to hear especially for our bitcointalk community ppl. I think chipmixer made a record of having a "longest running" signature campaign in the forum till date. I hope they come up with something although the chances seems very low after this seizure

Who cares about signature campaign when the money printer goes down. Btw, not chipmixer but crypto.games has a record, they have been running sig campaign since 2015.

Well, so is this a sign that governments are not going to let us use mixers ? I myself love mixing services and promoting one in my sig. space as well. I hate to see them all at risk now (although coinomize is still up for now).

They can't forbid you what to do but definitely it's something they don't want people to do. It's not the first, nor will be the last case of bitcoin mixers going down. Don't worry, it means that better alternative will come soon.

Didn't you get the memo? Only criminals use mixers.

Tomorrow I'll see some retard people, happy because they think that their government is doing a great job and fights crime.
Man, people really believe that it's used only by criminals and it should be forbidden. Bitcoin brings freedom but the problem is that freedom itself is a responsibility that people aren't ready to carry the weight on their shoulders.

Also, we are all being heavily spied on by our governments (in case anyone hasn't noticed yet). They had 149k data points about his location, provided by Google, back from 2016 to 2022.

Welcome to the real world. Do you think that tomorrow people will complain that they are tracked and all of their messages, etc is everything other than a privacy? No. That's what I am saying on this forum, people don't care about it. Only some people take it into consideration.


I always wonder, why don't the owners of these companies move in Russia? Why didn't do it earlier? Russia can be a heaven for them, especially today when there is such a terrible situation and Russia is a number one DMCA ignorant, number one USA ignorant overall.


Guys what do you think, will bitcointalk censor bitcoin mixers marketing?

[GazetaBitcoin]

Didn't you get the memo? Only criminals use mixers.

In the past, there was a memo. Only criminals use Bitcoin. 

These government officials will always hunt any innovation that want to promote privacy.

It's a sad days, gentlemen... And all these words only remind me of Phil Zimmermann's thoughts:

"If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."

I think chipmixer made a record of having a "longest running" signature campaign in the forum till date.

Btw, not chipmixer but crypto.games has a record, they have been running sig campaign since 2015.

This is correct, and I was just about to post same thing but I noticed you posted before me. Crypto.Games campaign was launched in June 2015, while ChipMixer was launched in May 2017. Still, it's one of oldest campaigns still running...

[Accardo]

Having the (main) website seized by authorities does not necessarily mean that the operations will be halted.

Something tells me that if this situation doesn't end here, they'll pay a visit to bitcointalk.

Also, if I was Minh, I'd not find it wise to setup another mixer now that everyone knows my name.

They've paid their first visit to the forum, the second visit, rare, won't be funny. Considering the numerous allegations placed on chipmixer and the FBI agent linked his activities back to the forum on the FBI documents written about chipmixer.

NGUYEN announced in a new
thread that he was “Introducing ChipMixer,” which he described as “Mixing reinvented for your
privacy.” Since then, “ChipMixer” has made over 400 posts to BitcoinTalk, the majority of
which involve addressing questions about ChipMixer. As of March 2023

The investigator followed up all the 400 posts created under the “chipmixer" moniker, it was also linked to Reddit too. I don't think they'll be need for the FBI to visit the forum again since they've gotten the information they need. Somehow we'll have FBI agents as active members of this forum, a lot is going on, everyone should be wary about their responses to some fishy questions in the forum.

[Husires]

I will quote some important things from here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download

According to Company
A’s tracing platform, from August 2017 to March 2023:
a. ChipMixer received 153,732 bitcoin and sent 153,672 bitcoin. Based on
the value of bitcoin at the time of the transactions, ChipMixer processed $3 billion worth of
transactions.
b. Chipmixer received $185 million and sent $17 million in bitcoin that was
directly or indirectly associated with wallets designated as darknet marketplaces.
c. ChipMixer received $35 million and sent $670,000 in bitcoin that was
directly or indirectly associated with wallets designated as fraud shops

Until May 2022, chipmixer.com was a
functional clearnet website that was hosted at a U.S. virtual private server (VPS) provider,
DigitalOcean

ChipMixer set up an account at a hosting provider using the name “Max
Archdall.” This account leased servers using a PayPal account associated with the name “Max
Archdall” and the mailing address 5 Myrtle Street, Merrijig, Australia. Based on FBI database
checks and open-source research, this is a fictitious address in Australia

As explained further below, NGUYEN used the moniker “ChipMixer” on the
popular bitcoin message board BitcoinTalk (available at bitcointalk.org). On May 18, 2017,
NGUYEN, as “ChipMixer,” posted (or caused to be posted) to BitcoinTalk that he was looking
for testers for a new bitcoin mixing service. On May 26, 2017, NGUYEN announced in a new
thread that he was “Introducing ChipMixer,” which he described as “Mixing reinvented for your
privacy.” Since then, “ChipMixer” has made over 400 posts to BitcoinTalk, the majority of
which involve addressing questions about ChipMixer. As of March 2023, NGUYEN’s
“ChipMixer” account was still active on BitcoinTalk. Further, since May 15, 2017, NGUYEN

The PayPal account with the name “MINH NGUYEN,” email address
nqminh73@yahoo.com, account ID 1706782211073221952, was the only PayPal account not
associated with a U.S.-based identity and associated with an actual bank account on the V3
PayPal Account payments received transaction logs

NGUYEN has A KYC binance account  

Pursuant to KYC verification requirements, NGUYEN supplied Binance with an identification
card issued by the government of Vietnam, as pictured below

Looks like he used one phone number which is strange for someone with a PhD in data encryption, he used Yahoo, Linkedin, Paypal and he has an Apple phone.

It also seems that he is the only one who manages @Chipmixer BTT account.

US know many information since 2021- OCT/2022





The strange thing is, despite the number of quoting many things from the forum, it was not mentioned that they obtained data from the forum or mention of the signature campaign.

[Synchronice]

The investigator followed up all the 400 posts created under the “chipmixer" moniker, it was also linked to Reddit too. I don't think they'll be need for the FBI to visit the forum again since they've gotten the information they need. Somehow we'll have FBI agents as active members of this forum, a lot is going on, everyone should be wary about their responses to some fishy questions in the forum.

Should be wary of what? Wait, was something illegal happening on this forum? Bitcointalk has nothing to do with this case because bitcointalk has never ever received a message from FBI that they should ban promoting of chipmixer, also Google Ads has run tons of advertisement for scam bitcoin mixers but no one was caught. We all know Chipmixer as a bitcoin mixer that increases our privacy and makes transaction less trackable and the wish of it is very natural and logical.

Everything is allright, there is no need to panic over nothing. Bitcointalk and bitcointalk members, including chipmixer signature campaign participants can feel safe since they have nothing to do with this accident.
If anyone pms anyone on this forum regarding to this topic, 99% it's a person who will try to take the advantage of this accident and scam you. Don't give away your information on anyone!

[2double0]

TBH, I'm very much curious to understand that why did the government seize BTC from Chipmixer at the first place?

How can they (Chipmixer) come under the faulty category that they were the ones who motivated money laundering?

They had been providing a service for a very long time and since it's the nature of a mixer not to attain any piece of information from the transaction that gets done by whomsoever uses the mixer, then how does the mixer know that the funds coming to them are from a terrorist, a money launderer or a criminal? And if using a service like mixer puts the mixing service into trouble at some point, then what about those misleading adverts about IDOs in social media and what should be done to a group of people who try to sell services (for eg.: an insurance) of a fake company to us without knowing that it may shut down any day? Should the social media be shut down and should those people be put behind the bars?

[mendace]

Mmh bad news one after the other, in my part they say and I translate it literally "it rains in the wet".  First SVB, then Credit Suisse and now also Chip Mixer who seized his site.  A long series of bad news awaits us in this 2023

[Saisher]

Guys what do you think, will bitcointalk censor bitcoin mixers marketing?

It's unlikely they never censor they just warn, if there are bad players in the industry the community is the one tagging and marking it as a scam, mixing sites are already part of the Cryptocurrency community in a world that's full of regulation and compliance, I doubt if Chipmixer will go down they will continue to exist and they will continue their marketing here, we'll read more news in the coming days about this takeover, really bad news for the community.

[bullrun2024bro]

The German authories (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) also published a press release on ChipMixer:

Link: https://www.bka.de/DE/Presse/Listenseite_Pressemitteilungen/2023/Presse2023/230315_Geldwaesche_Darknet.html

Die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt am Main – Zentralstelle zur Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität (ZIT) – und das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) haben am heutigen Mittwoch die in Deutschland befindliche Serverinfrastruktur des weltweit umsatzstärksten Krypto-Mixers im Darknet, „ChipMixer“, beschlagnahmt. Neben Daten im Umfang von ca. 7 Terabyte wurden Bitcoin in Höhe von derzeit umgerechnet ca. 44 Millionen Euro sichergestellt – die höchste bisher vorgenommene Sicherstellung von Kryptowerten durch das BKA.

Die Betreiber von „ChipMixer“ stehen unter anderem im Verdacht, gewerbsmäßige Geldwäsche und eine kriminelle Handelsplattform im Internet betrieben zu haben. Bei den Ermittlungen kooperierte das BKA eng mit dem United States Department of Justice (US DoJ), dem Federal Bureau of Investigation Philadelphia (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations Phoenix sowie Europol.

Bei „ChipMixer“ handelte es sich um einen seit Mitte 2017 bestehenden Dienst, der insbesondere Bitcoin kriminellen Ursprungs entgegennahm, um sie nach Verschleierungsvorgängen (sogenanntes „Mixing“) wieder auszuzahlen. Dabei wurden eingezahlte Kryptowerte zum Zwecke der Vereitelung von Ermittlungen in einheitliche Kleinstbeträge geteilt, die als „Chips“ bezeichnet wurden. Die „Chips“ der Nutzer wurden anschließend vermengt und die Herkunft der Gelder somit verborgen. „ChipMixer“ versprach seinen Nutzern vollständige Anonymität.

Es wird geschätzt, dass „ChipMixer“ seit 2017 Kryptowerte in Höhe von etwa 154.000 Bitcoin bzw. 2.8 Milliarden Euro gewaschen hat. Ein signifikanter Teil davon stammte von Darknet-Markt-plätzen, aus betrügerisch erlangten Kryptowerten, von Ransomware-Gruppierungen und aus anderen kriminellen Taten. So wird unter anderem dem Verdacht nachgegangen, dass Teile von im Zusammenhang mit der Insolvenz einer großen Krypto-Börse im Jahr 2022 entwendeten Kryptowerten über „ChipMixer“ gewaschen wurden. Zudem können Transaktionen in Millionenhöhe von der im April 2022 durch die ZIT und das BKA abgeschalteten Darknet-Plattform „Hydra Market“ nachgewiesen werden. Ebenso haben Ransomware-Akteure wie Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma oder Lockbit den Dienst zur Geldwäsche genutzt.

Zudem wurde der mutmaßliche Hauptbeschuldigte im US-Verfahren durch das FBI zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben sowie über das „Rewards for Justice Programm“ des US DoJ eine Belohnung für weitere ermittlungsrelevante Hinweise ausgelobt.

Der erneute Erfolg bei der Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität ist ein Ergebnis innovativer Bekämpfungsstrategien gegen die weltweite Cybercrime-Industrie. Denn: Geldwäschedienste sind regelmäßig ein wichtiger Bestandteil bei Erpressungen durch Ransomware-Angriffe. Ziel des BKA und der ZIT ist es daher, mit den in dem Verfahren gegen „ChipMixer“ gewonnen Erkenntnissen die Aufklärung weiterer Cyber-Straftaten voranzutreiben und zu verhindern, dass deutsche Infrastrukturen zu kriminellen Zwecken mit Geldern aus illegalen Handlungen missbraucht werden.

Die ZIT und das BKA bedanken sich bei allen beteiligten Sicherheitsbehörden für die hervorragende Zusammenarbeit.

(Use DeepL for a decent English translation)

Source: Bundeskriminalamt

The German BKA emphasizes that they will continue to ensure that German server infrastructure is not used for criminal purposes. Quite surprising that ChipMixer used German servers, if you ask me. Why would you do that in the first place. For a service that wants to guarantee anonymity for its users, I would have expected a more exotic server location.

[LTU_btc]

That's very sad day for crypto, but probably it doesn't comes as big surprise, considering narrative that mixers is used for money laundering. Yes it's used, same as many classic fiat money laundering schemes like offshore companies for example, but they aren't doing anything against it. And as someone noticed in Chipmixer thread, Feds chosen interesting timining to announce seizure of Chipmixer - bank crisis that's going on in US now.
I skimmed through investigation, but haven't checked all in detail. It's very detailed, 60 pages of information and for me it's interesting that they show everything in public. It's like a message for remaining mixers in market - we're watching you..
From what I understand, there is just one man behind Chipmixer and as I understand, he didn't got arrested. It seems that NGUYEN worked really hard to hide his identity, but still he got caught by using PayPal...

Any solid reason for them to seize bitcointalk.org?

I think it would be too much. Bitcointalk, same like Reddit was only used as platform to promote business, but it didn't got involved in money laundering

[dragonvslinux]

And with this news, the signature campaign has officially ended: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1935179.msg61920144#msg61920144

[james3441]

People say it's sad for crypto but remember that ChipMixer also lied.
Chipmixer was never supposed to store private keys after session deletion and guess what? People had coins seized that they transacted 3 months ago, like me.
I already wrote about this situation in chipmixer thread.

Never trust centralized mixers on what they state.

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.

[bbc.reporter]

What will happened to those who use the mixer previously. Is there a chance that my Bitcoin will be connected by Bitcoin use from money laundering or we are still safe? I use Chipmixer every week to mix my coins. It’s sad to read this bad news.  

Agreed. This is very much similar to how the government has arrested Tornado Cash's developer for creating a tool to protect someone's anonymity and privacy. I reckon if a car was used by a criminal to kidnap someone, the government cannot arrest the car company or if a cellphone was used as detonator for a car bomb that killed hundreds of people, the government cannot arrest the cellphone company.

I will quote some important things from here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download

As explained further below, NGUYEN used the moniker “ChipMixer” on the
popular bitcoin message board BitcoinTalk (available at bitcointalk.org). On May 18, 2017,
NGUYEN, as “ChipMixer,” posted (or caused to be posted) to BitcoinTalk that he was looking
for testers for a new bitcoin mixing service. On May 26, 2017, NGUYEN announced in a new
thread that he was “Introducing ChipMixer,” which he described as “Mixing reinvented for your
privacy.” Since then, “ChipMixer” has made over 400 posts to BitcoinTalk, the majority of
which involve addressing questions about ChipMixer. As of March 2023, NGUYEN’s
“ChipMixer” account was still active on BitcoinTalk. Further, since May 15, 2017, NGUYEN

Does this imply that there are government agents who are reading our posts and following some accounts who might be a danger to society hehehee?

[SeeBiscuit]

No...  

"It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

[Hispo]

I will quote some important things from here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download

As explained further below, NGUYEN used the moniker “ChipMixer” on the
popular bitcoin message board BitcoinTalk (available at bitcointalk.org). On May 18, 2017,
NGUYEN, as “ChipMixer,” posted (or caused to be posted) to BitcoinTalk that he was looking
for testers for a new bitcoin mixing service. On May 26, 2017, NGUYEN announced in a new
thread that he was “Introducing ChipMixer,” which he described as “Mixing reinvented for your
privacy.” Since then, “ChipMixer” has made over 400 posts to BitcoinTalk, the majority of
which involve addressing questions about ChipMixer. As of March 2023, NGUYEN’s
“ChipMixer” account was still active on BitcoinTalk. Further, since May 15, 2017, NGUYEN

Does this imply that there are government agents who are reading our posts and following some accounts who might be a danger to society hehehee?

If we are realistic about this situation, the priority of the agents in this moment is to try to localize and detain their suspect.
I can see a couple agents being involved in this forum from now on, so the intelligence agencies can track what Mixing services are becoming popular and see if they can link the official Bitcointalk account to the real identity of the operator.

People who used the funds to protect their privacy with legally earned satoshis and those who participated in the signature campaign will be okey, because I do not remember a legal basis to exist against them, besides, as the number of people they try to deal with increases, the law enforcement becomes more difficult and inefficient.

There is something we should not doubt, though. We are being observed.

[stompix]

Does this imply that there are government agents who are reading our posts and following some accounts who might be a danger to society hehehee?

I would be more surprised if that wouldn't be the case, not as in an actual person browsing through the latest posts and searching for what this and that individual says about something but more likely bots that scan for keywords and trigger further analysis. I'm pretty sure they do so over other platforms too, but again all automatic and on bigger platforms they probably have it already built in.

Just as an example, Facebook has been doing surveillance on its chat since at least 2012, god knows how much earlier before they acknowledge.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-scans-chats-and-posts-for-criminal-activity/

That aside, I would love to see how much a government agent would last while reading the P&S board, the rate at which they would succumb to brain tumors would make them cancel human surveillance.

[Darker45]

What will happened to those who use the mixer previously. Is there a chance that my Bitcoin will be connected by Bitcoin use from money laundering or we are still safe? I use Chipmixer every week to mix my coins. It’s sad to read this bad news.  

Agreed. This is very much similar to how the government has arrested Tornado Cash's developer for creating a tool to protect someone's anonymity and privacy. I reckon if a car was used by a criminal to kidnap someone, the government cannot arrest the car company or if a cellphone was used as detonator for a car bomb that killed hundreds of people, the government cannot arrest the cellphone company.

And yet, in the case of Tornado Cash, hundreds of millions worth of different coins linked to the mixer in one way or another were frozen. This was generally a blanket move. This wasn't just done selectively to suspicious wallets and addresses. This included funds of innocent and unsuspecting Tornado Cash users.

~snip~

Does this imply that there are government agents who are reading our posts and following some accounts who might be a danger to society hehehee?

Of course, most likely. They've probably long been here. They're probably not just reading; they might also have accounts. After all, this forum was also the place where Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht, altoid here, left a trace that cost him his freedom.

This forum has probably long been an interesting place for them.