In one of its most significant moves against crypto-linked crime to date, German authorities have confiscated €34 million (roughly $38 million) in digital assets from eXch, a platform allegedly tied to laundering funds from the massive Bybit exchange hack earlier this year.
The operation was announced on May 9 by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt. Alongside the digital assets — which included Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dash — law enforcement also took down eXch’s servers, seizing more than 8 terabytes of data and permanently shutting the service down.
This marks the third-largest crypto seizure in the BKA’s history.
A Platform With a Dark Past
eXch wasn’t a newcomer to the crypto scene. Launched in 2014, the platform offered users a way to swap crypto assets freely — and crucially, without any Anti-Money Laundering (AML) protocols. That lack of oversight made it a magnet for bad actors. According to officials, eXch processed nearly $1.9 billion in transactions over the years, with a sizable portion believed to have criminal origins.
The most notorious of these? Funds stolen during the record-breaking $1.4 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.
Investigators say that a portion of the funds looted from Bybit were funneled through eXch, converted back and forth between Bitcoin and Ethereum, and eventually bridged across various blockchains in an effort to obscure their trail.
eXch Linked to More Than Just Bybit
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT — known for his deep dives into crypto crimes — was one of the first to publicly tie eXch to the laundering of $35 million stolen from Bybit. But it didn’t stop there.
ZachXBT also linked eXch to several other high-profile exploits, including funds tied to Multisig, FixedFloat, and the $243 million theft from Genesis creditors. The platform allegedly played a role in laundering funds for a variety of phishing drainer services over the years as well — and reportedly refused to freeze wallets even when ordered.
One post from ZachXBT shared shortly after the Bybit breach stated that the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group had transferred 5,000 ETH to a new address and began cycling those funds through eXch before bridging to Bitcoin using a service called Chainflip.
eXch Bows Out — But Not Quietly
Despite denying involvement at first, eXch eventually announced its shutdown in a mid-April post on Bitcoin Talk, stating it would cease operations by May 1. In the post, the platform pushed back against what it called a “hostile environment,” claiming it had merely been misunderstood.
“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure […], we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] simply because some people misinterpret our goals,” the post read.
But for German authorities, the shutdown wasn’t enough.
Senior public prosecutor Benjamin Krause highlighted the need to clamp down on anonymous crypto-swapping services, calling them “a core tool in the underground economy.”
“These platforms make it incredibly easy to disguise illicit funds gained from hacks or illegal data sales, and give criminals a way to quickly reintroduce dirty money into the system,” he said.
Final Thoughts: A Warning Shot to Crypto Launderers
The eXch takedown sends a clear signal — not just in Germany, but globally — that crypto platforms operating outside regulatory norms are firmly in law enforcement’s crosshairs. As governments around the world tighten their grip on the crypto ecosystem, the message is loud and clear: the era of flying under the radar is coming to an end.
