After the Samourai Wallet indictment, the cryptocurrency community discovered that the Bitcoin blockchain analysis platform OXT is no longer operational, as it was acquired by the Samourai team in December 2017. On April 25, Laurentmt, a co-founder of OXT and bitcoin advocate, revealed the closure on the social media site X with the statement, “RIP OXT.”
Crypto Community Loses OXT Analysis Tool Amid Legal Troubles for Samourai Wallet
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Impact of Samourai Wallet Indictment Felt as Associated OXT Platform Ceases Operations
Blockchain analysts will no longer be able to use the explorer OXT after it appears that U.S. federal law enforcement shut down its server. Laurentmt, a co-founder of OXT, posted on the social platform X, “RIP OXT,” and when queried about the possibility of continuation, he responded, “It seems that servers have been taken down.” In December 2017, it was announced that the team behind the privacy-oriented BTC wallet, Samourai, had purchased the blockchain explorer.
“Samourai [has] just acquired OXT,” the BTC proponent Beautyon shared on X on Dec. 21, 2017. “This is highly significant, and is exactly the sort of acquisition you would expect rational business owners to make; accumulate complimentary, high quality businesses to create a stellar portfolio. Watch [Samourai], very closely,” the X account added.
The website of Samourai was taken over, and U.S. law enforcement has indicted its two co-founders for alleged money laundering and running an unlicensed money transmission business. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated that the founders “knowingly facilitated the laundering of over $100 million of criminal proceeds.” Crypto and privacy advocates argue that the indictment is weak, riddled with errors, and represents an outright intrusion on financial privacy.
As of now, all of the online platforms linked to Samourai Wallet are inaccessible to the public, including Samourai’s blog where the team expressed their enthusiasm about acquiring OXT six years ago. “We acquired the OXT project in 2017,” Samourai wrote at the time. “Something we were very proud to do, as we successfully outmaneuvered a known adversarial chain analysis company to secure the property as freely available to the public. Democratizing access to analysis software.”
OXT and the researchers utilizing the platform have played a crucial role in identifying specific transactions linked to well-known hacks, breaches, while also providing literature concerning BTC privacy. OXT maintained annotations for certain addresses that traditional blockchain explorers had not flagged. Although the platform is no longer active, Laurentmt did share a list of archived OXT research posts.
The indictment of Samourai Wallet’s co-founders and the subsequent shuttering of the OXT platform marks a significant moment in the ongoing tension between privacy advocates and regulatory authorities.
What do you think about the closing of OXT following the Samourai Wallet indictment? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
