The German authorities recently closed 47 cryptocurrency exchanges, accusing them of willfully creating a “underground economy” for cybercriminals to thrive. It is now focused on its potentially criminal users.
“[They have been] deliberately concealing the origin of criminally obtained funds on a large scale through [the] inadequate implementation of legal requirements for combating money laundering,” Germany’s federal criminal police office, Frankfurt’s main prosecutor’s office, and the country’s office for combating cybercrime alleged in a statement on September 19.
The authorities claim that users of the exchanges include ransomware, botnet operators, and black market dealers who use the platforms to shift money earned through unlawful means into the “regular currency cycle.”
The websites of the confiscated cryptocurrency exchanges now show a clear warning from the German government:
“We located and seized their servers, including development, production, and backup servers. We have their data, and hence we have yours. “Transactions, registration data, and IP addresses,” the officials stated.
However, German authorities believed that extensive prosecution would be impossible because many of the criminals live in foreign nations.
“Since cybercriminals often reside abroad and are tolerated or even protected by some countries, they often remain inaccessible to German law enforcement,” according to the article.
It is claimed that one of the confiscated cryptocurrency exchanges, Xchange.cash, has been in operation since 2012, processing approximately 1.3 million transactions for 410,000 members.
60cek.org, Baksman.com, and Prostocash.com were among the other seized trading platforms with large user and transaction volumes.
