In a major crypto crackdown, Germany has shut down 47 crypto exchanges allegedly for carrying out illegal activities including money laundering. The decision was taken by the German Attorney General’s Office Frankfurt am Main and the country’s Federal Criminal Police Office(BKA).
According to the press release, these crypto exchanges did not comply with regulations and failed to carry out “know your customer” (KYC) of their customers.
The press statement read, “Exchange services that enable such anonymous financial transactions and thus money laundering represent one of the most relevant building blocks in the criminal value chain of the cybercrime phenomenon. Among the users are ransomware groups, darknet traders and botnet operators who use such services to introduce ransom money or other proceeds of crime into the regular currency cycle in order to be able to utilize the money obtained through criminal means.”
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Some of the affected exchanges include Xchange.cash, 60cek.org, Baksman.com, and other smaller platforms.
BKA also informed that as a part of their investigation, some customer and transaction data were seized. It also added that people involved in illicit activities live outside Germany and hence their prosecution seems quite impossible for German officials.
After this major crackdown, BKA will now work on the weak underlying infrastructure that allowed these illicit activities.
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