Crypto glossary
Crypto mixer
A crypto mixer is a service or smart contract that pools many users' funds and pays them out to new addresses, hiding the link between sender and receiver.
Because public blockchains show every transfer, anyone can follow coins from address to address. A mixer blends deposits from many users and lets each withdraw an equivalent amount to a fresh address, so observers cannot easily tell which output belongs to which input. Custodial mixers take the coins and send back different ones, while non-custodial designs use smart contracts or collaborative transactions such as CoinJoin on Bitcoin.
Mixers have legitimate privacy uses, but they are also used to launder proceeds from hacks and ransomware, which makes them a regulatory target. In August 2022 the US Treasury's OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash, an Ethereum mixer based on smart contracts; the sanctions were lifted in March 2025 after a court ruling in a legal challenge. Its developers have faced criminal charges in several countries.
Exchanges often freeze or question deposits linked to mixers, and using a sanctioned service can carry legal consequences depending on the jurisdiction.
Example
A user deposits 10 ETH into a mixer pool alongside hundreds of other deposits of the same size and, days later, withdraws 10 ETH to a new address that has no visible on-chain link to the first.
Related terms
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