Germany Cuts Down eXch in $1.9B Money Laundering Crackdown—$38M Crypto Seized

German regulators just dropped the hammer on crypto exchange eXch—alleging a $1.9 billion laundering scheme and swiping $38 million in digital assets. Another day, another ’trustless’ system begging for oversight.

The raid exposes crypto’s dirty little secret: for all its decentralization hype, the money trail still leads back to old-school financial crime. Guess some habits—like regulators playing cleanup—die hard.

Is eXch down?

Although eXch announced its closure on May 1, claiming it was under international pressure, German investigators said they used the timing to secure evidence and advance their probe.

However, blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs recently reported that eXch continued operating in parts despite the claimed shutdown.

The firm said API access remained active for partners, and on-chain activity revealed suspicious movements. Notably, over $300,000 in funds linked to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) reportedly passed through the platform’s infrastructure.

It added:

“It’s unclear whether eXch will completely shut down its remaining API operations or resume operations as a new service. However, the remaining API access continues to provide anonymization infrastructure for threat actors.”