Top German criminal and cybersecurity investigators had shut down 47 cryptocurrency exchanges, saying the operations allow for money laundering, they said on Thursday.

The operators of the now-shutdown exchange services were accused of deliberately concealing the origin of criminally obtained funds on a large scale by failing to implement legal requirements for combating money laundering.

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The investigators said the services allowed exchange transactions to go through without conducting a registration process and checking proof of identity.

They did so to quickly and anonymously exchange cryptocurrencies for other currencies by concealing the origin of the transactions.

All of the so-called exchange services were operated in Germany, the investigators said.

According to authorities, exchange services that enable anonymous financial transactions and, thus, money laundering are among the most important building blocks for cybercrime.

Darknet dealers and botnet operators can reportedly be found among the platforms’ users.

The authorities said they could introduce ransom money or other proceeds obtained through criminal activity into the regular currency cycle via such services. 

(dpa/NAN)