The Frankfurt General Prosecutor's Office (Generalstaatsanwaltschaft) and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have shut down 47 cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of involvement in criminal activities like money laundering. The BKA said in an interview on Thursday that these exchanges deliberately failed to fulfill their obligations to conduct customer identity and background checks, known as "Know Your Customer" (KYC) requirements.

Some of these exchanges include Xchange.cash, 60cek.org, Baksman.com, and several smaller platforms. One exchange had been active since 2012, while others were established the previous year.

During the investigation, the government seized customer and transaction data. Due to the perpetrators often residing outside of Germany in countries that "tolerate or even protect" such criminal activities, authorities stated that it would be nearly impossible to prosecute them.

Instead, they will focus on "weakening" the infrastructure that allows these illegal activities to flourish.

Earlier this year, the BKA seized 49,857 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $2.1 billion from the operators of a privacy website called Movie2k.to, which was shut down in 2013 for copyright infringement.

The agency started selling the tokens in July, contributing to the sell-off pressure on the global cryptocurrency market alongside the simultaneous repayment of the defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox, which occurred around the same time.