US DOJ Finalizes $400 Million Asset Linked to Crypto Mixer Helix

The U.S. Department of Justice now legally owns more than $400 million in assets from Helix, a once-popular darknet cryptocurrency mixing service used to hide the sources of illegal money. The DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs said in a press release that the agency received the final title to cryptocurrency, real estate, and funds connected to Helix’s business last week. 

The move comes later than Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of issued a final forfeiture order on January 21, 2026. Helix, which was mostly active from 2014 to 2017, handled about 354,468 BTC, which was worth about $300 million at the time. A lot of this was linked to illegal operations on darknet marketplaces, like drug transactions.

Operator’s Guilty Plea and Sentence

Larry Dean Harmon, who runs Helix in Ohio, owned the assets. In August 2021, Harmon admitted to being part of a plan to launder money. He was given 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and told to give over the property and money that had been taken from him in November 2024.

The DOJ said that Helix was a service that mixed users’ cryptocurrencies across multiple transactions to obscure their origins, destinations, and owners. It became popular with online drug dealers who wanted to clean their money since its made it easier to connect with large darknet sites like AlphaBay.

The Scope of The Seizure and The Investigation

The assets lost are valued at more than $400 million and include digital currencies, real estate, and cash. The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Inquiry (IRS-CI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) played significant roles in the inquiry.

A federal prosecutor working on cybercrime cases said the investigation was quite thorough: “The inclusion of real estate and shows that investigators are following the money wherever it goes.”

This case shows how hard the DOJ is working to shut down BTC-mixing businesses used for illegal purposes. Helix is older than more recent well-known mixers like Tornado Cash, which was sanctioned before the current administration repealed the restrictions in 2025.

However, the forfeiture shows that people remain responsible for their actions even years later than they stop working.

A Wider Look at Crypto Privacy Tools

The Helix action is part of a pattern of U.S. law enforcement targeting systems that facilitate anonymous transactions. Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, discussed similar policy issues in the context of Tornado Cash: “offer huge chances for innovation and value creation for the American people.” 

To make the U.S. a leader in the digital asset business and make sure that all Americans can benefit from financial innovation and inclusiveness, it is significant to protect it from misuse by North Korea and other criminals.

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of , has spoken out in favor of balanced approaches: “No one wants to view poor people use crypto.” But many law-abiding people value their privacy, and you can’t punish open source code.

The U.S. government now permanently owns the Helix-linked assets later than the final forfeiture. This serves both as a way to get money back and as a warning to anyone who runs similar services. The case shows that money derived from crimes involving cryptocurrencies can still be traced and recovered, no matter how much time has passed or how many assets have been converted.