US completes seizure of $400 million linked to cryptocurrency mixer Helix

According to prosecutors, Helix processed hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin associated with illicit activities on the darknet.

Summary

• Helix processed more than $300 million in Bitcoin while operating as an unregistered mixing service.
  A federal judge issued a final forfeiture order in late January, transferring ownership of the assets to the US government.
• According to prosecutors, the service was used to conceal the trail of transactions originating from darknet markets.
• US authorities have completed the seizure of more than $400 million in assets linked to Helix, a cryptocurrency mixing service used to launder funds from online drug markets and other criminal activities. Legal ownership of the assets was transferred to the US government following a final order issued by a federal judge on January 21.

Helix, a cryptocurrency mixer that operated on the darknet since 2014, processed at least 354,468 bitcoins, according to a Justice Department statement released on Thursday, January 29, 2026. A significant portion of these cryptocurrencies originated from or were destined for darknet drug markets, while the service operator retained a percentage of each transaction as fees.

These types of services work by pooling and redistributing funds to conceal the origin and destination of the cryptocurrencies, making it difficult to trace transactions. According to the prosecution, Helix was specifically created to facilitate money laundering from illicit markets, not as a general-purpose privacy tool. Its dismantling, authorities stated, represents a direct blow to the infrastructure used in criminal supply chains.

The Justice Department asserted that eliminating these types of platforms forces illicit actors to resort to less efficient and more exposed methods, increasing the risk and complexity of money laundering. In its 2025 Annual Report, the institution highlighted a significant increase in law enforcement against financial crimes linked to digital assets, following a record year in which 265 people were charged for losses exceeding $16 billion.

The civil lawsuit against Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon was based on alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act between 2014 and 2017. Authorities maintain that Harmon operated the service as an unregistered financial services company, failing to implement anti-money laundering programs or file suspicious activity reports. Harmon later became CEO of Coin Ninja, a registered company that also offered cryptocurrency-related services and promoted features designed to circumvent customer identification requirements.

Investigations concluded that Helix was used to transfer funds linked to drug trafficking, fraud, child exploitation, and extremist groups.