eXch instant exchanger seizure (April-May 2025)

eXch, one of the most-cited strictly-no-KYC instant exchangers from 2022 to early 2025, was seized by German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) in coordination with U.S. authorities on money-laundering allegations in late April–May 2025.

What happened

• Late April 2025: BKA executes seizure of eXch infrastructure in Germany; the operator's domain begins resolving to a seizure notice.
• Public statements connect the seizure to allegations that eXch laundered proceeds from major crypto thefts, including the February 2025 Bybit hot-wallet exploit (~$1.4B).
• eXch had operated since 2022 as one of the most-explicitly-no-KYC instant exchangers, with Tor mirror and aggressive no-screening positioning.
• Seizure removed the platform from the durable no-KYC swap list and forced re-routing through other backends in aggregator stacks.

Why it matters

eXch was singularly positioned in the no-KYC swap ecosystem as the operator most-explicitly-refusing AML screening. Its seizure narrows the no-KYC instant-swap category and signals that strict no-screening operator stance is itself a regulatory-attention magnet. Subsequent operators have tightened their public positioning accordingly.

Status in 2026

eXch is defunct. The seizure proceedings continue. The functional no-KYC instant-swap options in 2026 are Trocador-routed backends (FixedFloat, Exolix, SideShift, ChangeNOW, SimpleSwap, Majestic Bank) with varying screening postures.

Related directory entries

• eXch seized · none kyc
• Trocador active · optional kyc
• FixedFloat active · optional kyc
• Exolix active · none kyc

Sources

1. BKA (German Federal Criminal Police)
2. Wikipedia — Cryptocurrency and crime

Explainer reviewed May 12, 2026. Cite as: https://fuckyc.org/explainers/exch-seizure-2025/