Interesting, I hadn't heard anything about that prior to the seizing of their site--and that tells me I ought to bookmark at least one crypto news website.
Why in the world would any mixer that wants to remain in business for the long term accept funds that are so tainted that, as you said, in doing so they would seal their own fate? I assume mixers have a choice in the matter, no?
Though the answer remains unknown, I think the founder/creator/owner/operator of both Blender and Sinbad (known as Mehdi) probably became too confident and as a result of that he probably thought he had mixed/jumbled the $22 million he used to create Sinbad to the point it would not be traced back to Blender. He was wrong because a blockchain
Elliptic did link them.
I think there is a clear difference when a mixer is being used to mix for the average person conducting non-criminal acts for the sake of increasing privacy and an enterprise that has been created with laundered money to offer a mixing service
Going forward I'm guessing the US and other governments are going to scrutinize all the mixers harder than they ever have, and I'm wondering if any of those governments are just going to take the quick route and criminalize them. I always hear that bitcoin can't be stopped by any government, but if you make it illegal to use just watch its adoption drop off a cliff. Same thing with mixers I'd imagine.
I have no doubt they will come down on mixers very hard but cannot speculate as to when the clampdown will start (unless it already has). The accusations against Chipmixer and Sinbad are/were of colossal money laundering therefore they law enforcement agencies closed them down but other mixers did not receive as much attention. That will no doubt change in the future as more money launderers search for alternatives to mix their funds.