ChipMixer.com has been seized.

[mindrust]

Now I understand why bitmixer.io chickened out and left this business years ago. If you never have heard of it, bitmixer.io had the best automated signature campaign of this forum running till they decided that they don’t want to live behind the bars because they exactly knew how risky it was to mix “clean” coins with “dirty” coins. It wasn’t worth it. If you read bitmixer.io’s last posts, they said just that. The account is still around and reading the forum btw. He must be thinking… “I shorted this business right in time. Phew.”

[1714541159]

1714541159

[NotATether]

I read a long attached document at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download

I'm still going through it, and saw this

As part of the FBI’s efforts to combat ransomware attacks against victims in the
United States, including the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA), the FBI became aware of
a cryptocurrency mixing service known as ChipMixer, operating through the following clearnet
domains and Tor sites:
a. clearnet: chipmixer.com
b. Tor: chipmixorflykuxu56uxy7gf5o6ggig7xru7dnihc4fm4cxqsc63e6id.onion
c. clearnet: chipmixer.io
Case 2:23-mj-00528 Document 1 Filed 03/14/23 Page 12 of 60
12
d. Tor: chipmixerwzxtzbw.onion
e. clearnet: chipmixer.club
f. Tor: qw6xpezaqb57xsviksbsbjlrftevt52s7baaxiubwb6mkpwkqcfdppqd.onion

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?

Records from Google for the account jamessmithhelp@gmail.com revealed location history data. From September 2016 through March 2022, there were 149,027 data points associated to the account that resolved in and around Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Damn, just makes you wodner how much data they collect!

The only positive thing coming out of this is that the scam domains are being seized too (apparently, because Feds never read scam accusations), so nobody will ever launch a scam clone of it again.

[PrimeNumber7]

After getting more than 7 TB of data (I don't know what's in it truly)

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 

The selfies in the criminal complaint ("press release report") were given to various exchanges as part of their KYC process.

7 TB of data is a lot for a business like ChipMixer to have. I suspect that some of this is a copy of the blockchain, which was potentially replicated across multiple full nodes. It is also possible that, for whatever reason, this guy was keeping some information about his customers.

He was caught by using Paypal, unbelievable. Chipmixer is done!

I am not surprised by this. As with the case with SilkRoad, CM was not a success on the day it started, and as such, I presume the operator didn't think he would be as big of a target as he eventually became. It is unusual for law enforcement to devote substantial resources into investigating crimes done on a small scale, and he presumably didn't anticipate how successful CM would eventually become. It seems that he became more careful over time, for example, by requiring customers to only access the mixing portion of his site via tor.

[LoyceV]

The only positive thing coming out of this is that the scam domains are being seized too (apparently, because Feds never read scam accusations), so nobody will ever launch a scam clone of it again.

I fear the opposite: CM-users will look for an alternative, and many of them will fall victim to new scam sites.

Am I the only one who's surprised that 1900 Bitcoin was stored in hot wallets?

there is just one man behind Chipmixer

Or, there's one guy taking the fall now. I always thought that CM had deep pockets from the start, and that doesn't sound like a single guy from Vietnam.

[Maslate]

I guess there are no mixers that are safe these days; it's just a matter of time, as eventually, a mixer that is still operating now might be seized in the future. Chipmixer has been a reputable Bitcoin mixer, but we know how the government handles this world. Centralization is enforced, and if you ask for privacy in transacting your money and use a service like a mixer, you'll already be on the watchlist, as they might think you are laundering money.

[mindrust]

Yeah. I am not buying that story neither. One would be incredibly stupid to believe that a man from Chi- I mean Vietnam was behind the whole operation. Whoever was running the operation probably made him and his family incredibly rich so they could use his name on the papers. Everything was good as long as no FEDs were involved but when they do... he is going to pay for the wealth he acquired by serving jail time. A fair trade I would say. Balanced. Like everything in the universe. Action > Reaction. Cause and Effect.

[dansus021]

I just saw the news that is crazy after what happened on tornado cash now chipmixer its kinda scary tho, for me and the whole mixing industry I hope everything settles down

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

and you was right and all of this happen in the first Q1 of 2023 damn. We need a good news right now.

[LoyceV]

I was curious how many chips got emptied, so I compared the number of funded addresses with "chip-sized-balances" this morning to yesterday morning's balances. Note that this isn't meant to be accurate, it also includes non-chips with the same balance (and it could even include addresses that received additional funds so they're no longer counted as "chips"). Despite these shortcomings, I'm pretty sure most of them are chips.

1 mBTC chips: March 15: 377619 - March 16: 373824 - Difference: -3795 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -3.795 BTC.
2 mBTC chips: March 15: 81644 - March 16: 79035 - Difference: -2609 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -5.218 BTC.
4 mBTC chips: March 15: 32943 - March 16: 30463 - Difference: -2480 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -9.92 BTC.
8 mBTC chips: March 15: 16179 - March 16: 13950 - Difference: -2229 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -17.832 BTC.
16 mBTC chips: March 15: 8823 - March 16: 6701 - Difference: -2122 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -33.952 BTC.
32 mBTC chips: March 15: 4737 - March 16: 3452 - Difference: -1285 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -41.12 BTC.
64 mBTC chips: March 15: 2410 - March 16: 1359 - Difference: -1051 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -67.264 BTC.
128 mBTC chips: March 15: 1638 - March 16: 830 - Difference: -808 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -103.424 BTC.
256 mBTC chips: March 15: 1702 - March 16: 392 - Difference: -1310 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -335.36 BTC.
500 mBTC chips: March 15: 57401 - March 16: 57411 - Difference: 10 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 5 BTC.
512 mBTC chips: March 15: 973 - March 16: 277 - Difference: -696 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -356.352 BTC.
1000 mBTC chips: March 15: 96484 - March 16: 96525 - Difference: 41 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 41 BTC.
1024 mBTC chips: March 15: 1582 - March 16: 267 - Difference: -1315 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -1.346.56 BTC.
2000 mBTC chips: March 15: 19824 - March 16: 19792 - Difference: -32 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -64 BTC.
2048 mBTC chips: March 15: 229 - March 16: 57 - Difference: -172 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -352.256 BTC.
4000 mBTC chips: March 15: 4493 - March 16: 4496 - Difference: 3 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 12 BTC.
4096 mBTC chips: March 15: 238 - March 16: 114 - Difference: -124 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -507.904 BTC.
8000 mBTC chips: March 15: 1293 - March 16: 1284 - Difference: -9 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -72 BTC.
8192 mBTC chips: March 15: 81 - March 16: 15 - Difference: -66 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -540.672 BTC.

For comparison, this is what the data would have looked like on a "normal" day (2 days earlier):
1 mBTC chips: March 13: 377071 - March 14: 376999 - Difference: -72 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -0.072 BTC.
2 mBTC chips: March 13: 81456 - March 14: 81506 - Difference: 50 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 0.1 BTC.
4 mBTC chips: March 13: 32672 - March 14: 32742 - Difference: 70 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 0.28 BTC.
8 mBTC chips: March 13: 15963 - March 14: 16019 - Difference: 56 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 0.448 BTC.
16 mBTC chips: March 13: 8664 - March 14: 8708 - Difference: 44 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 0.704 BTC.
32 mBTC chips: March 13: 4717 - March 14: 4736 - Difference: 19 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 0.608 BTC.
64 mBTC chips: March 13: 2394 - March 14: 2416 - Difference: 22 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 1.408 BTC.
128 mBTC chips: March 13: 1628 - March 14: 1639 - Difference: 11 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 1.408 BTC.
256 mBTC chips: March 13: 1629 - March 14: 1673 - Difference: 44 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 11.264 BTC.
500 mBTC chips: March 13: 57411 - March 14: 57449 - Difference: 38 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 19 BTC.
512 mBTC chips: March 13: 915 - March 14: 960 - Difference: 45 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 23 BTC.
1000 mBTC chips: March 13: 96436 - March 14: 96480 - Difference: 44 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 44 BTC.
1024 mBTC chips: March 13: 1575 - March 14: 1596 - Difference: 21 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 21.504 BTC.
2000 mBTC chips: March 13: 19810 - March 14: 19806 - Difference: -4 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -8 BTC.
2048 mBTC chips: March 13: 205 - March 14: 231 - Difference: 26 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 53.248 BTC.
4000 mBTC chips: March 13: 4482 - March 14: 4481 - Difference: -1 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -4 BTC.
4096 mBTC chips: March 13: 231 - March 14: 242 - Difference: 11 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 45.056 BTC.
8000 mBTC chips: March 13: 1290 - March 14: 1288 - Difference: -2 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -16 BTC.
8192 mBTC chips: March 13: 78 - March 14: 83 - Difference: 5 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 40.96 BTC.
(note: when the total balance "swept" is positive, more addresses with that balance were created, not swept).

A quick count shows that more than 1900 Bitcoin was swept, which makes me believe that not all private keys were compromised and some users swept it on their own.

Raw data source: List of all Bitcoin addresses with a balance

Update

Segwit (addresses starting with bc) only:
1 mBTC chips: March 15: 129252 - March 16: 127143 - Difference: -2109 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -2,109 BTC.
2 mBTC chips: March 15: 22471 - March 16: 20861 - Difference: -1610 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -3,22 BTC.
4 mBTC chips: March 15: 8205 - March 16: 6591 - Difference: -1614 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -6,456 BTC.
8 mBTC chips: March 15: 4893 - March 16: 3313 - Difference: -1580 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -12,64 BTC.
16 mBTC chips: March 15: 3534 - March 16: 1840 - Difference: -1694 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -27,104 BTC.
32 mBTC chips: March 15: 1810 - March 16: 873 - Difference: -937 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -29,984 BTC.
64 mBTC chips: March 15: 1012 - March 16: 334 - Difference: -678 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -43,392 BTC.
128 mBTC chips: March 15: 876 - March 16: 169 - Difference: -707 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -90,496 BTC.
256 mBTC chips: March 15: 1296 - March 16: 77 - Difference: -1219 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -312,064 BTC.
500 mBTC chips: March 15: 29868 - March 16: 29891 - Difference: 23 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 11,5 BTC.
512 mBTC chips: March 15: 657 - March 16: 37 - Difference: -620 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -317,44 BTC.
1000 mBTC chips: March 15: 31921 - March 16: 31964 - Difference: 43 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 43 BTC.
1024 mBTC chips: March 15: 1333 - March 16: 54 - Difference: -1279 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -1,309,696 BTC.
2000 mBTC chips: March 15: 7746 - March 16: 7755 - Difference: 9 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 18 BTC.
2048 mBTC chips: March 15: 196 - March 16: 37 - Difference: -159 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -325,632 BTC.
4000 mBTC chips: March 15: 1615 - March 16: 1620 - Difference: 5 funded addresses. Total balance swept: 20 BTC.
4096 mBTC chips: March 15: 127 - March 16: 15 - Difference: -112 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -458,752 BTC.
8000 mBTC chips: March 15: 397 - March 16: 392 - Difference: -5 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -40 BTC.
8192 mBTC chips: March 15: 61 - March 16: 3 - Difference: -58 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -475,136 BTC.

Native (addresses starting with 1) only:
1 mBTC chips: March 15: 202374 - March 16: 200753 - Difference: -1621 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -1,621 BTC.
2 mBTC chips: March 15: 45485 - March 16: 44496 - Difference: -989 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -1,978 BTC.
4 mBTC chips: March 15: 19819 - March 16: 18920 - Difference: -899 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -3,596 BTC.
8 mBTC chips: March 15: 8595 - March 16: 7936 - Difference: -659 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -5,272 BTC.
16 mBTC chips: March 15: 3916 - March 16: 3486 - Difference: -430 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -6,88 BTC.
32 mBTC chips: March 15: 2191 - March 16: 1848 - Difference: -343 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -10,976 BTC.
64 mBTC chips: March 15: 1193 - March 16: 823 - Difference: -370 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -23,68 BTC.
128 mBTC chips: March 15: 650 - March 16: 548 - Difference: -102 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -13,056 BTC.
256 mBTC chips: March 15: 356 - March 16: 264 - Difference: -92 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -23,552 BTC.
500 mBTC chips: March 15: 15473 - March 16: 15460 - Difference: -13 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -6,5 BTC.
512 mBTC chips: March 15: 283 - March 16: 207 - Difference: -76 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -38,912 BTC.
1000 mBTC chips: March 15: 42015 - March 16: 41998 - Difference: -17 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -17 BTC.
1024 mBTC chips: March 15: 244 - March 16: 208 - Difference: -36 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -36,864 BTC.
2000 mBTC chips: March 15: 6352 - March 16: 6314 - Difference: -38 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -76 BTC.
2048 mBTC chips: March 15: 32 - March 16: 19 - Difference: -13 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -26,624 BTC.
4000 mBTC chips: March 15: 1499 - March 16: 1496 - Difference: -3 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -12 BTC.
4096 mBTC chips: March 15: 109 - March 16: 97 - Difference: -12 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -49,152 BTC.
8000 mBTC chips: March 15: 518 - March 16: 515 - Difference: -3 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -24 BTC.
8192 mBTC chips: March 15: 19 - March 16: 11 - Difference: -8 funded addresses. Total balance swept: -65,536 BTC.

[Kemarit]

Yeah. I am not buying that story neither. One would be incredibly stupid to believe that a man from Chi- I mean Vietnam was behind the whole operation. Whoever was running the operation probably made him and his family incredibly rich so they could use his name on the papers. Everything was good as long as no FEDs were involved but when they do... he is going to pay for the wealth he acquired by serving jail time. A fair trade I would say. Balanced. Like everything in the universe. Action > Reaction. Cause and Effect.

Thanks for this, I was talking to my wife about this case and it was just surprising that a one man band from Vietnam had this operations running for the last 6 years. Either someone from behind used his name, or he is really that "intelligent" to hide everything until that fatal mistakes he did that's why the authorities was able to track him down and his name.

[Husires]

I was curious how many chips got emptied, so I compared the number of funded addresses with "chip-sized-balances" this morning to yesterday morning's balances. Note that this isn't meant to be accurate, it also includes non-chips with the same balance (and it could even include addresses that received additional funds so they're no longer counted as "chips"). Despite these shortcomings, I'm pretty sure most of them are chips.

Time will give us more accurate answers, but if these coins were seized, they would not be moved soon and would be sold in a public auction, what really surprised me how one person could buy 1900 Bitcoin, the report did not add about any additional details.

What scares me is the data that was collected, it is 7 terabytes, if their claim is correct, then many of the previous *scams* will be exposed easily and this will lead us, why did CM lie all this time about deleting logs after two weeks.

[dragonvslinux]

Yeah. I am not buying that story neither. One would be incredibly stupid to believe that a man from Chi- I mean Vietnam was behind the whole operation. Whoever was running the operation probably made him and his family incredibly rich so they could use his name on the papers. Everything was good as long as no FEDs were involved but when they do... he is going to pay for the wealth he acquired by serving jail time.

This is also the impression I got from reading more through the court document, he's probably just the fall guy. There appears to be a "leap" in connection between the suspect and the servers than ran CM. At most he appears to be connected to stolen accounts, or had his identity stolen himself, or had dealings with stolen accounts. His other connection is with the "V3 Subscriber":

The “V3 Subscriber” Persona

42. Records received from Hetzner revealed the individual identified as the subscriber for IP address 138.201.227.85, hereinafter the “V3 Subscriber.” The V3 Subscriber was a stolen identity used by NGUYEN to hide his involvement in ChipMixer. The records listed a ProtonMail account, a Google account, and a phone number with a country code of +48 associated with the V3 Subscriber. I have learned that +48 is the country code for Poland.

43. Records provided by Google for the Google account associated with the V3 Subscriber revealed the same name as the V3 Subscriber’s name for IP address 138.201.227.85 at Hetzner, an account creation date of March 20, 2021, a recovery phone number with a country code of +380, and Terms of Service IP address which resolved to Ukraine. I have learned that +380 is the country code for Ukraine.

If I had to guess, the "V3 Subscriber" is based in Central/Eastern Europe not Southeast Asia. My favourite quote so far from this, relating to the V3 Subscriber:

Based on my training and experience, I believe that NGUYEN stole these individuals’ identities to obfuscate their illegal activity and facilitate money laundering.

So basically, it's a hunch then. Generally, the more I read into this case, the more holes there seem to be. That's just my interpretation/speculation anyway.

[Detritus]

oh.. ohh... oh wow, so finally ChipMixer is down, it was  a scam all along and some members who participated in it know but never talked about it, but lot of them were against 1Xbet and tagged people who wear the signature. at this point you guys also need to be tagged.

[BlackHatCoiner]

it was  a scam all along and some members who participated in it know but never talked about it

Why was it a scam?

[Detritus]

Why was it a scam?

Why is the website sized? If it's not a Scam then keep ur hope alive it comes back.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Why is the website sized? If it's not a Scam then keep ur hope alive it comes back.

If a drug dealer is seized does it mean he was a scammer?

[coolcoinz]

This is also the impression I got from reading more through the court document, he's probably just the fall guy.

So, what do we have?
A 49 year old Vietnamese who used gmail, protonmail, and so on, who had a lot of bitcoin, but was slowly exchanging it by offering to sell it to you $100 at a time if you send money to his paypal account?
I feel like this guy was the front man with the real coders working behind much thicker walls. They needed someone to be in contact with clients on bitcointalk and reddit, someone who'd pay the campaign manager, but I don't believe the same person did everything from answering questions on the forum, through managing all those domains to fixing bugs and trading bitcoin.

It looks like he was arrested in Germany but charged in Philadelphia? So a person who isn't a US citizen, who probably never went to the US, who lived in Europe, isn't going to be prosecuted and sentenced in Europe? It's funny that no matter where you are the USA is running the show and all governments bow down to the greatest bully.

[Detritus]

If a drug dealer is seized does it mean he was a scammer?

If a drug dealer is seized for pushing drugs and also at same time it was discovered that some Scammers give funds to him to run his business, what should happen to the scammers if found and could you say that the drug dealer was awear or not awear that the funds he is getting to run his business is from scammers?

[darkangel11]

If a drug dealer is seized for pushing drugs and also at same time it was discovered that some Scammers give funds to him to run his business, what should happen to the scammers if found and could you say that the drug dealer was awear or not awear that the funds he is getting to run his business is from scammers?

To awear, or not to awear, that is the question

[BlackHatCoiner]

If a drug dealer is seized for pushing drugs and also at same time it was discovered that some Scammers give funds to him to run his business, what should happen to the scammers if found and could you say that the drug dealer was awear or not awear that the funds he is getting to run his business is from scammers?

Miners are also aware that some of the transactions they mine come from scammers, and thus take a commission from illicit activity. Does that make them scammers? No.

The fact that you think a mixer is a scam, just because it uses scammers' funds, means you've misunderstood the definition of a "scam". Let me quote it:

A scam is a fraudulent scheme or fraudulent activity conducted by an individual or group with the intention of deceiving people out of their money, personal information, or other valuables.

ChipMixer, and every other similarly working mixer, is the complete opposite of scam. Ensuring privacy for everyone, and therefore for guilty people as well, is what a mixer all about.

[NotATether]

If a drug dealer is seized does it mean he was a scammer?

If a drug dealer is seized for pushing drugs and also at same time it was discovered that some Scammers give funds to him to run his business, what should happen to the scammers if found and could you say that the drug dealer was awear or not awear that the funds he is getting to run his business is from scammers?

The problem here is that governments stopped going after the real scammers a long (decades) time ago, because they can't do that with the technical and social infrastructure they've got, but it's certainly possible. So they have resorted to criminalizing any service that is used by scammers, including legitimate ones, and destroying them, except for the services who retain a large enough legal team to wear down the government's in court - see FTX and Sam for an example of that.

Chipmix.io, a known scam clone, is still up by the way - and it's even on the first page of google, under a bunch of "governments shut down Chipmixer" news articles.

And you mention drug dealers - well let me ask you a question then. Do you think Ross Ulbricht deserves his double life sentence?