There’s no sugarcoating that 2022 was not a good year for crypto. In fact, it might be considered one of the worst years for crypto. With significant hacks, crypto scams, disgraced crypto influencers, and the fall of major crypto companies, 2022 didn’t exactly go in crypto’s favor.

But a new year turned the tide on the way things were being approached regarding crypto. Significant changes were made in policies and regulations, and most importantly, the stance towards crypto. 2023 is expected to help crypto fully recover, and the industry is determined more than ever to rid of the villainous image of the crypto world! We’re gonna go over some of the significant crackdowns on illegal crypto schemes and give you an idea of how this new approach to crypto will work.

If you’re unfamiliar with ChipMixer, it is, well was, a crypto laundering service that was just taken down in a joint operation launched by the Belgium federal police, German federal criminal police, and general prosecutors office Frankfurt-main, central cybercrime bureau of Poland, cantonal police of Zurich Switzerland, the United States FBI, homeland security investigation, and the DOJ.

ChipMixer was a massive dark spot in crypto’s image. The crypto laundering service has operated since 2017 and was linked to all kinds of illegal activities and terrorism. It worked by mixing up or cutting the trails related to crypto assets, making it impossible to trace.

ChipMixer was operated out of Vietnam, but the servers ran from Germany. When the service was finally taken down, it was believed that over three billion dollars were laundered through ChipMixer over six years. ChipMixer was used by cybercriminals who laundered illegal gains from criminal activities that included but were not limited to drug trafficking, ransomware hacks, card payment frauds, weapons trafficking, and much more.

The illegal and unlicensed cryptocurrency mixer was believed to be the Russian military hackers, North Korean cyber criminals, and online drug dealers. Notorious ransomware attackers like Zeppelin, Dharma, and Lockbit, among others, were also believed to be using ChipMixer to clean their ill-gotten assets. So, an alliance of the world’s top criminal investigation departments was needed to take down this behemoth.

That is precisely what happened on March 15th. The joint operation was successful, and the ChipMixer website was finally taken down. The authorities seized over seven terabytes of data and over $47 million in Bitcoin. The DOJ charged the owner of the service, Minh Quốc Nguyễn, with several counts of money laundering, running an unlicensed exchange, and identity theft. The involved authorities in the joint operation marked their victory by displaying a banner saying, ‘This website has been taken down,’ with logos of law enforcement agencies from Germany, America, Switzerland, and Poland.

ChipMixer isn’t the only crackdown authorities are proud of this year. The notorious crypto fugitive Do Kwon was also captured last week in Montenegro. Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, defrauded investors by running fake crypto schemes and was responsible for manipulating the crypto market, resulting in several crypto coins' crashes. Upon arrest, Do Kwon was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, market manipulation, conspiracy to defraud investors, securities fraud, wire fraud, and several other charges. Authorities are taking decisive actions against these crypto villains and launching primary crackdown operations on illegal crypto activities.

2023 is the start of a new year for crypto. Governments are taking a much more refined and open approach to creating cryptocurrency regulations to give them a stable asset image. Crypto influencers and companies are determined to gain the public’s trust again, and with tighter laws and regulations, crypto fraud is expected to be eliminated. Apart from that, Bitcoin is also likely to make its highest-ever climb to upwards of $100,000 by the end of this year. Some experts have gone as far as predicting its value to be $1 million! Ethereum is also expected to rise quite a lot in the coming days.

So, these crackdown operations on illegal crypto activities are helping change the stance towards crypto after all! Because there’s no doubt about how lucrative and versatile crypto is, it is essentially the future of our financial system. Thus, crypto must maintain a positive figure in the eyes of the public. Another thing people always look for is a trusted platform to partner with when looking to get into the crypto world. You should always go with reputable and high-end crypto-buying platforms where you can place your trust. And Voltcoins might be the perfect choice for you! The premium crypto-buying platforms offer a secure place to buy a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETC), LiteCoin (LTC), as well as Tether (USD). You can pay for your crypto using any of the three payment methods: credit card payments, bank wire transfers, or Interac. Voltcoins aims to deliver a seamless and hassle-free service by offering a fast KYC process and rapid transactions! You can start buying crypto from Voltcoins by heading to their website.