The U.S. government has taken full legal ownership of more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrency, cash, and real estate tied to Helix, once one of the most widely used bitcoin mixing services on the darknet.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., entered a final order of forfeiture on Jan. 21, transferring the assets to the government following the conviction of Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon. The forfeiture includes thousands of bitcoin, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and an Ohio mansion purchased during the peak of Helix’s operation.
Helix functioned as a cryptocurrency mixer, pooling and rerouting bitcoin transactions to obscure their origins and destinations.
Prosecutors say the service was built to serve darknet drug markets and was directly integrated into their withdrawal systems through an application programming interface.
Court records show Helix processed roughly 354,468 bitcoin between 2014 and 2017, worth about $300 million at the time. Investigators traced tens of millions of dollars from major darknet marketplaces through the service. Harmon took a cut of each transaction as operating fees.
Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021 to conspiracy to commit money laundering. After years of delays, he was sentenced in November 2024 to three years in prison, followed by supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit seized assets and pay a forfeiture money judgment.
Authorities say Helix worked alongside Grams, a darknet search engine Harmon also operated, which helped users locate illicit marketplaces. Together, the services formed part of the financial infrastructure underpinning darknet drug trade during that period.