European law enforcement struck a blow against those seeking increased privacy for their bitcoin, dismantling the CryptoMixer service in a coordinated operation that netted over €25 million in seized cryptocurrency. According to a press release, from November 24 to 28, authorities in Switzerland and Germany, backed by Europol and Eurojust, raided servers in Zurich as part of what has been dubbed “Operation Olympia.”
The operation resulted in the seizure of three servers hosting the platform, the cryptomixer.io domain, and more than 12 terabytes of data, all tied to a service that had processed €1.3 billion in bitcoin since 2016. As a centralized, custodial mixing service, CryptoMixer operated across the clear web and dark web, pooling user deposits for randomized delays before redistributing funds to obscure the financial trail on the blockchain. After the takedown, a seizure notice replaced the site’s interface.
This latest crypto mixing crackdown echoes a long pattern in Bitcoin’s history. Mixing tools emerged almost alongside the network itself, with Bitcoin Fog launching around 2011 as one of the first to tumble funds for a fee, processing over $400 million in cryptocurrency. U.S. authorities arrested its operator, Roman Sterlingov, in 2021; he was convicted of money laundering conspiracy in 2024 and sentenced to twelve years and six months in prison.
More recently, Blender.io fell to U.S. Treasury sanctions in May 2022 for allegedly aiding North Korean hackers, followed by charges against its operators in January 2025.
These cases highlight the vulnerabilities of centralized mixers, where single points of failure invite seizure of user funds, prosecutions for administrators, and the eventual shutdown of the platforms themselves. And while the push for more decentralized alternatives aims to bolster privacy without these associated issues, real-world outcomes indicate operators or even open-source developers can still very much be at risk.
Samourai Wallet’s developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, received five and four-year prison terms for facilitating bitcoin transactions with enhanced privacy via their non-custodial bitcoin wallet. Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm is also currently awaiting sentencing after a partial conviction for similar charges in August 2025.
For those seeking stronger anonymity, privacy-oriented altcoins like Monero and Zcash fill the gap, for now. Monero, in particular, edged out bitcoin in terms of use on dark web platforms for some years; however, a recent report in CoinDesk indicates that the sector has begun pivoting back to bitcoin following the removal of Monero from major crypto exchanges.
It’s also worth noting that some developers are excited about the potential use of a relatively new technology, known as BitVM, to enable a privacy-focused layer-two network for Bitcoin; however, there are some lingering concerns around whether a sufficient level of decentralization can be achieved by a potential protocol implementation.
“zooko should’ve made zcash a bitcoin L2”
you cannot build a permissionless zerocash l2 without 1) a soft fork or 2) massive legal risks
even with new bridge designs, there’s concerns around bridge operators unilaterally censoring users in private network
might be able to do… pic.twitter.com/GE7O3R3O3v
— janusz (@januszg_) November 17, 2025
While prosecutions for privacy-focused crypto developers are taking place, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao walked free in October after receiving a Trump pardon, despite his role in the exchange’s relaxed anti-money laundering controls that drew a 2023 guilty plea and four-month sentence. Many critics, including the former DOJ pardon chief Elizabeth Oyer, decry the move as an unprecedented level of corruption, citing Binance’s holdings of $2 billion in a stablecoin issued by Trump-linked crypto venture World Liberty Financial.
In contrast, Rodriguez and Hill petitioned Trump for a pardon shortly after their sentences were handed down, but no response from the administration has emerged.
The Trump administration has clarified crypto rules in specific ways, signing the GENIUS Act in July 2025 to regulate stablecoin issuance and having the SEC close down various investigations into a wide variety of securities violations related to crypto token issuance.
So far, the benefits of this regulatory clarity around crypto have skewed toward centralized issuers rather than Bitcoin’s core infrastructure, like node operators or wallet developers. Groups such as Coin Center and the Bitcoin Policy Institute are pressing for safeguards for non-custodial wallet and application developers in the CLARITY Act, which cleared the House in July 2025 and now navigates the Senate.
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