I would vote "maybe" if that was an option.

If ChipMixer were explicitly illegal then that would be entrapment, so I'm actually leaning toward "no, they're not." (maybe that doesn't apply in certain circumstances, not certain)

I'm also a big fan of proof before jumping to conclusions when it comes to such "what if" conspiracies.

However, the fact that they haven't been sanctioned after over 5 years in business is puzzling, especially after laundering money for North Korea and several other famous hacking incidents.

For example, both Blender.io and Tornado Cash were sanctioned specifically because Lazarus Group used them to launder Ronin Bridge hack money. Lazarus also sent some of those funds to ChipMixer -- so why did they evade sanctions?

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-adds-virtual-currency-mixer-sanctions-list-over-north-koreas-cyber-activities-2022-05-06/
https://cryptoslate.com/ronin-bridge-hackers-used-chipmixer-to-launder-over-73m-of-stolen-funds/

Its indeed a curiosity.


People who are exceptionally concerned about this should just use Monero.