U.S. authorities have finalized the forfeiture of over $400 million in assets linked to Helix, a darknet cryptocurrency mixer. A federal judge entered the final order on January 21, transferring ownership to the government. The service, which operated from 2014 to 2017, processed over 1.2 million Bitcoin transactions valued at roughly $311 million at the time, primarily to obscure funds from illicit darknet market activities.
A federal judge entered a final forfeiture order on January 21, transferring legal ownership of more than $400 million in assets tied to the darknet crypto mixer Helix to the U.S. government. The service operated between 2014 and 2017 as an unregistered money-transmitting business.
Helix processed over 354,000 Bitcoin, worth approximately $311 million at the time, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Prosecutors said it pooled and redistributed Bitcoin to obscure transaction trails, primarily for darknet drug market users.
The platform’s operator, Larry Dean Harmon, built Helix and the Grams search engine to integrate directly with major darknet markets. He took fees from transactions that investigators later traced back to tens of millions of dollars.
“Helix is an example of a service built specifically to clean money from darknet markets, not a neutral privacy tool later misused, and taking it down treats that infrastructure like any other part of a criminal supply chain,” said Ari Redbord of TRM Labs. He added that such actions force illicit actors into less direct, more exposed paths.
The civil case against Harmon was based on violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Court filings allege he never registered Helix with FinCEN, failed to implement an anti-money laundering program, and did not file suspicious activity reports.
Harmon, who later became CEO of the registered money services business Coin Ninja, pleaded guilty in 2021 to conspiring to launder money in a related criminal case. A separate 2022 civil case noted his DropBit product was marketed as a way to bypass know-your-customer requirements.
