The US Treasury Division Workplace of International Property Management (OFAC) introduced Friday that it was sanctioning cryptocurrency mixer Blender.io for its function in laundering proceeds from the hacking of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge. North Korean state-sponsored hackers Lazarus Group have been recognized because the perpetrators of the assault.
Treasury Below Secretary for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence Brian E. Nelson mentioned in an announcement:
“As we speak, for the primary time ever, Treasury is sanctioning a digital foreign money mixer. […] We’re taking motion towards illicit monetary exercise by the DPRK and won’t enable state-sponsored thievery and its money-laundering enablers to go unanswered.”
Below the sanctions, all Blender.io property in the US or within the possession of U.S. individuals is blocked and have to be reported to OFAC.
In line with OFAC, Blender.io processed $20.5 million out of roughly $620 million stolen from the Vietnam-based play-to-earn sport within the type of roughly 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (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 added 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.
Related: US Treasury Dept sanctions 3 Ethereum addresses allegedly linked to North Korea
There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network.https://t.co/ktAp9w5qpP
— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) March 29, 2022
The Ronin Bridge hack happened on March 23, but it surely was solely found the next week. The bridge was accessed via sport developer Sky Mavis. That group had been indefinitely whitelisted after serving to course of a surge in transactions. Sky Mavis raised $150 million to reimburse customers who misplaced cash within the exploit, and Binance was capable of get well $5.8 million of the cash from 86 accounts. Lazarus Group was recognized because the hackers by OFAC in mid-April.
