Wasabi Wallet stops bitcoin CoinJoin feature

zkSNACKs is discontinuing its CoinJoin coordinator. This decision will take effect from June 1, 2024. zkSNACKS is the developer of the Wasabi Wallet, a bitcoin wallet that allows you to regain extra privacy over your coins.

Privacywallet is taking a step back

After competitor Samourai Wallet was violently ended (in which the two developers were arrested and software services and a website were taken down), everything at Wasabi Wallet is now also on edge.

zkSNACKs pioneered privacy for bitcoin transactions. By discontinuing the coordinator, a tool that collected all inputs from CoinJoins, the developer hopes to avoid difficult waters. American rules are too dangerous for the people behind this service.

In the statement, the developer writes that it was a difficult decision because the company has always tried to operate within legal clarity.

After years of relentless dedication to improve Bitcoin’s privacy, zkSNACKs, the company pioneering the development of Wasabi Wallet, is shutting down its coinjoin coordination service, effective June 1st, 2024.

Blog post announcement link:https://t.co/zMxvQJuQFZ

— Wasabi Wallet (@wasabiwallet) May 2, 2024

The Wasabi Wallet will continue to exist, and as it stands now you can still start your own coordinator. Finding sufficient liquidity is a lot more difficult. Users can also simply generate private keys to receive (and send) bitcoin.

According to the company, even without a CoinJoin option, Wasabi Wallet is still a very privacy-friendly wallet. With the client-side filters, Tor integration and coin control, there are plenty of tools that can be useful to many privacy advocates. However, without CoinJoins it is more difficult to achieve complete privacy on the blockchain.

The news also impacts users of the zkSNACKs coordinator via, for example, the Trezor Suite and BTCPayServer.

The Wasabi Wallet was launched in 2018, and has been in the news several times in recent years due to alleged problems with both obscuring the origins of coins, but also for denying some UTXOs listed on blacklists to stand.