Quote from: gentlemand on April 04, 2020, 09:07:26 AM

I'm not sure the law can be bothered to delineate the difference. It's the intent of the service provider rather than the needs of the users that they'll go after.

I don't deny that authorities can probably spin facts if they're motivated enough (even if mixers aren't inherently illegal), but at least in Bestmixer's case:

Quote from: https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/crypto-currency-laundering-service-bestmixer-io-taken-down-by-law-enforcement/

A mixing service will cut up a sum of Bitcoins into hundreds of smaller transactions and mixes different transactions from other sources for obfuscation and will pump out the input amount, minus a fee, to a certain output address. Mixing Bitcoins that are obtained legally is not a crime but, other than the mathematical exercise, there no real benefit to it.

The legality changes when a mixing service advertises itself as a success method to avoid various anti-money laundering policies via anonymity. This is actively offering a money laundering service.

It looks like this case also advertised itself as a way to launder money, which made it blatantly illegal on top of everything else. I don't think other mixers should be too concerned just because a random one got taken down.