The United States is more and more attentive to cryptocurrency fraud. For the first time, the US Treasury comes to issue sanctions against a cryptocurrency mixer called Blender.io.
The cryptocurrency mixer to launder dirty money
Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it will be recruiting 20 new investigators for its crypto-asset monitoring unit. The United States is leveling itself with the hackers. The cryptocurrency mixer literally allows you to “mix funds of crypto-assets, potentially identifiable or contaminated with others, in order to obscure the trail to the original source of the fund”. It is a service which is not insignificant and which is obviously used for money laundering. The US Treasury has issued its first sanctions against Blender.io, for allegedly “helped North Korea launder over $20.5 million in crypto-assets”.
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This financial windfall came in particular from the digital robbery of Axie Infinity (625 million dollars stolen in April 2022) and other cybercrimes. The measures taken by the US Treasury against this cryptocurrency mixer block all Blender.io assets in the United States, as well as transactions related to the United States. This blocking prevents the funds of the sanctioned entities from changing hands and should make it possible to see things more clearly. These sanctions come days after authorities attributed the Axie Infinity cyberattack at the Lazarus Groupa group funded by the North Korean government.
North Korea in the sights of the US Treasury
For several years, North Korea is accused of being the source of many cyberattacks. The ransoms allow him to finance his armament programs. For example, the country would have collected 400 million dollars in cryptocurrencies in 2021. North Korean hackers have managed to penetrate at least seven crypto-asset exchanges to steal money. Cybersecurity agency Kapersky noted that hackers were spoofing venture capital firm names to contact cryptocurrency startups. to steal them.
The US Treasury operation identified four digital wallets that Lazarus Group hackers allegedly used to launder the rest of the cryptoassets stolen during the attack on Axie Infinity. The agency pointed out that most cryptocurrency-related activities were legal and only targeted cryptocurrency mixers that help criminals launder their dirty money. However, there is a very clear warning here: the United States is ready to sanction crypto-asset services if they help cybercriminals achieve their ends.