I don’t buy that eXch intended to help launder money, that just doesn’t align with what the project always felt like to me. It never felt shady, it felt anti-surveillance, which some people mistake for shady, there’s a huge difference there. I’m someone who values privacy, maybe to a fault. I’ve used platforms like eXch because I wanted control, not because I wanted to disappear. Like I said, there’s a nuance in that, but the authorities don’t do nuance well.
Now eXch is shutting down under pressure on the 1st of May this year, and that feels more like a silent war than actual justice. A so-called “transatlantic operation” is apparently targeting them, whatever that means. I think the moment the Lazarus Group connection hit headlines, the world stopped caring about facts. $35 million allegedly laundered through eXch, and suddenly the entire project is poison. But always remember that every big exchange has seen shady money move through it, they just have more polished PR teams and deeper regulatory ties.
When I saw their statement, it didn’t sound like a defense to me, It rather sounded like exhaustion, Like people who built something out of passion and watched it rot in the court of public opinion. They never even pretended to be a mixer. Oh how people throw that word around so carelessly. I’ve tried mixers and eXch wasn’t one. It didn’t have that feel, that same cloak-and-dagger rhythm, instead it was open source, clean in its interface, felt built for power users who cared about privacy but didn’t want to cross lines.
Now I’m also not saying nothing illicit passed through, like I said, that happens everywhere. If you build a road, someone might use it to flee a crime scene, it doesn’t mean the road was made for criminals.
Here's the brutal irony: while eXch gets buried, Bybit, the "victim of the hack" has already bounced back with stronger market share. This simply means that the only ones who vanish are the people who tried to push back against an industry obsessed with controlling what it doesn’t understand.
I remember recommending eXch to a friend last year, then he was skeptical, now he’s gloating. He said I backed the wrong horse. What to say to him now?
Happy Easter By the way.
