The U.S. government now has legal title to more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrencies, real estate and cash linked to the once-popular darknet bitcoin mixing service Helix, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. Mixing services like Helix are designed to mask the origin and destination of crypto transactions by pooling and redistributing funds, a practice long scrutinized by law enforcement and regulators. The DOJ alleged that Helix in particular was used by drug dealers and other criminals to launder money.
According to court documents, Helix was among the most widely used mixing services on the darknet, particularly by online drug traffickers seeking to launder illicit profits. Investigators said Helix processed at least 354,468 bitcoins, worth about $300 million at the time, much of which was linked to darknet drug markets. Helix’s operator, Larry Dean Harmon, earned commissions and fees on these transactions.
Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021 to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced in November 2024 to 36 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, as well as a judgment of forfeiture of money and forfeiture of seized property.
Harmon also operated Grams, a darknet search engine designed to connect users to major darknet marketplaces. Helix’s application programming interface (API) has enabled darknet markets to integrate the mixer directly into their bitcoin withdrawal systems, enabling a
Since 2020, the DOJ Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) has obtained more than 180 cybercrime convictions and court orders for the return of more than $350 million in funds to victims, according to the Department of Justice.
