Crypto

Crypto mixer sanktioneret af US Treasury for rolle i Axie Infinity hack

05/06/2022
Bitcoin Ethereum-nyheder

Det amerikanske finansministerium Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) meddelte fredag, at det sanktionerer cryptocurrency mixer Blender.io for dens rolle i hvidvaskning af indtægter fra hackingen af ​​Axie Infinitys Ronin Bridge. Nordkoreanske statssponsorerede hackere Lazarus Group er blevet identificeret som gerningsmændene til angrebet. 

Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson sagde i en erklæring:

Billede

"I dag sanktionerer Treasury for første gang nogensinde en virtuel valutamixer. […] Vi griber ind over for DPRK's ulovlige økonomiske aktiviteter og vil ikke tillade, at statssponsoreret tyveri og dets midler til hvidvaskning af penge forbliver ubesvaret."

I henhold til sanktionerne er al Blender.io ejendom i USA eller i besiddelse af amerikanske personer blokeret og skal rapporteres til OFAC.

According to OFAC, Blender.io processed $20.5 million out of approximately $620 million stolen from the Vietnam-based play-to-earn game in the form of roughly 173,600 Ether (ETH) og 25.5 millioner USD mønt (USDC). OFAC also found during its investigation that Blender.io had facilitated money laundering for Russia-linked ransomware groups including Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Gandcrab. The Blender.io website was offline at the time of writing.

The Treasury agency also tilføjet the addresses of four wallets used by Lazarus Group to launder some of the stolen funds to its List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.

Relateret: US Treasury Dept sanktionerer 3 Ethereum-adresser, der angiveligt er knyttet til Nordkorea

The Ronin Bridge hack took place on March 23, but it was only discovered the following week. The bridge was accessed through game developer Sky Mavis. That organization had been indefinitely whitelisted after helping process a surge in transactions. Sky Mavis raised $150 million to reimburse users who lost money in the exploit, and Binance was able to recover $5.8 million of the money from 86 accounts. Lazarus Group was identified as the hackers by OFAC i midten af ​​april.