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Bitcoin · CoinJoin Landscape
2 MIN READ

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

Samourai Wallet was shut down in 2024. Whirlpool is effectively inactive. Here is the current state of Bitcoin CoinJoin tools, what remains operational, and what the privacy landscape looks like now.

What happened to SamouraiWhat works now
THE SHORT VERSION

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 ↗DOJ charged founders with money-laundering conspiracy and unlicensed money transmission. Case is ongoing as of 2026..

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

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 ↗JoinMarket 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)The fundamental unit of Bitcoin accounting, the "coins" you hold that have been received but not yet spent.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 verification requirements that financial institutions use to confirm who their customers are.Full definition UTXOs with no-KYC UTXOs.
  • Avoid address reuse.
  • These basics matter more for most people than advanced mixing.

See /sparrow-wallet-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
Sources & Citations
  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.