Step One: Use a mix so the coins can't be tied to any specific drug deal by the time you cash them out Step Two: Use anonymous ATM cards to cash them out so you don't need to explain the $100,000's that just landed in your bank account. I am pretty sure some of the cards can cash out $1,000 a day so get 100 of them and you could technically cash out 100k in a day , one vendor I know has like 8 of them all anonymous so thats ~$56,000 a week in cash out potential with none of it tied to a IRL identity other than the fake / stolen ones used to obtain the cards. Another option is mix + cash out to western union and pick up with a fake ID Another option is mix + cash out to another E-currency like pecunix or LR, lots of exchangers for those will cash out to WU for you plus it adds another layer of obfuscation. I still have yet to hear of anyone who uses pecunix + offshore exchangers being traced via a financial trail , it isn't bulletproof by any means but it is still a lot better than paypal, the pigs will need to get records from pecunix + records from the exchanger and that usually involves two different international jurisdictions. Pick the exchangers wire up with a fake ID and it makes it all the harder, now it takes three international jurisdictions and they will end up at a dead end with nothing but CCTV footage if they are lucky.  There are two distinct goals, the first is to avoid being traced via a financial trail. Correctly implemented and heavily used mixes do an excellent job of achieving this, better than anything else, especially blind mixes. The second goal is to avoid having unaccounted for money showing up under your name, and risking money laundering charges by being tied to a mix. This can be achieved in a few ways, anonymous ATM cards, anonymous / fake ID wire pick ups , layering traditional E-currency accounts / exchangers in between your bank account and the mix (less secure than the other options but better than nothing, also only good for hiding that you used a mixing service not from hiding that you obtained money) etc. Doing either of these things is good and some of them actually help achieve both goals (for example, cashing out with an anonymous ATM will help avoid you being traced through financial trails and it also hides that you obtained money, even if you don't use a mix or anything else), but using both sorts of technique together means you are golden. What you don't want to be doing is cashing in via a bank account under your own name, using your real IP address at the exchanger, and then sending the bitcoins right to a vendor without mixing them. You also don't want to be taking your coins from SR and then with your real IP address making a deal with an exchanger to get money in your real bank account for them. Doing that is hardly better than using Paypal, although as long as you bounce Bitcoins around a few accounts that are not linked on the network layer you should obtain plausible deniability in an evidence context, but that does fuck all at preventing intelligence from indicating your involvement.