Privacy · Explainer

CoinJoin in 2026.
What replaced Samourai and what works now.

READ2 min·UPDATED·APPLIES TOAny country·LEVELAdvanced
For privacy-focused holders tracking which CoinJoin tools still work post-Samourai. Sources are listed at the bottom of the page; check their dates before acting.

Samourai Wallet was shut down in 2024. Whirlpool is effectively inactive. Bitcoin users need to assess which CoinJoin tools remain operational and what privacy they offer.

Check before acting. Rates, prices, fees and product terms change often. Confirm the current figures with the provider or the linked source before you act.

Short answer

CoinJoin is the technique of combining Bitcoin inputs from multiple parties into one transaction so outside observers cannot tell who paid whom. Samourai's shutdown in 2024 disrupted the most-used implementation. JoinMarket, Sparrow's Payjoin support, and rigorous coin control are the current practical options for most users.

Section 1 · What happened to Samourai

Samourai Wallet founders were arrested in April 2024 and the app was taken down ×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Samourai Wallet co-founders were charged in April 2024 by the US DOJ.Verify at: DOJ press release ↗ Source 1 in the list belowDOJ charged founders with money-laundering conspiracy and unlicensed money transmission. Both founders pleaded guilty in 2025 and were sentenced to prison..

This removed Whirlpool (Samourai's CoinJoin implementation) as the dominant privacy tool for most users.

The legal question raised: whether operating a non-custodial CoinJoin coordinator constitutes money transmission under US law. Actively contested as of 2026.

Section 2 · What works now

Five identical wooden balls drop into one enclosed cabinet from separate chutes and roll out the bottom as five identical balls in a row.
CoinJoin combines Bitcoin inputs from multiple parties into one transaction, so outside observers cannot tell who paid whom.

JoinMarket

  • Decentralized, no central coordinator.
  • Maker/taker model: "makers" provide liquidityliquidityHow quickly and easily you can convert an asset to cash without significantly affecting its price.Full definition for fees, "takers" pay to mix.
  • More complex setup than Whirlpool.
  • No central point to shut down ×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: JoinMarket is a decentralized CoinJoin protocol with no central coordinator.Verify at: JoinMarket GitHub ↗ Source 2 in the list belowJoinMarket has been operating since 2015. Open source, peer-reviewed..

Sparrow + Payjoin (BIP 78)

  • Payjoin is a different approach: a two-party transaction where both sender and receiver contribute inputs.
  • Breaks heuristic assumptions in chain analysis.
  • Requires both parties to support Payjoin.
  • Sparrow supports it.

Coin control as a baseline

  • For most users, rigorous UTXOUnspent Transaction Output (UTXO)A piece of bitcoin you received and have not yet spent, like a separate bill in a wallet. Your balance is the total of your UTXOs. Spending uses up whole UTXOs and creates new ones, usually including change sent back to you, and each UTXO carries its own history, which matters for privacy.Full definition labeling and coin control in Sparrow provide meaningful privacy improvement without the complexity of CoinJoin.
  • Do not combine KYCKnow Your Customer (KYC)Identity checks that banks, brokers and regulated Bitcoin exchanges must run under anti-money-laundering rules, collecting your name, address, date of birth, an ID number and often a photo ID. Buying through a KYC exchange links your identity to the bitcoin you buy and the addresses you withdraw it to.Full definition UTXOs with no-KYC UTXOs.
  • Avoid address reuse.
  • These basics matter more for most people than advanced mixing.

See Sparrow Wallet: Complete Setup Guide for the labeling and coin-control workflow.

RELATED PAGES
Sparrow Wallet · baseline privacy Silent Payments · address-reuse fix Bitcoin Privacy Guide · full privacy stack UTXO Management · coin-control fundamentals Run a Node · for query-level privacy

Where to go from here

Do next

UTXO Management

Coin control and labeling, the practical privacy step most users can do today.

Read next

Silent Payments

A newer, address-reuse-free privacy protocol worth understanding next.

Explore further

Sources

Verify badges in the text link to these sources. Figures, rates and rules change: check each source’s date before acting on it.

  1. US DOJ press release on Samourai Wallet (April 2024) · justice.gov. ↩
  2. JoinMarket on GitHub · github.com/JoinMarket-Org/joinmarket-clientserver. ↩
  3. BIP 78. Payjoin Specification · github.com/bitcoin/bips/bip-0078.

Last updated . Educational content, not financial advice. Disclosures · How pages are reviewed

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