While it is difficult to take direct action against, the Treasury is "updating the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons to identify additional virtual currency addresses used by the Lazarus Group to launder illicit proceeds”. We are taking action against illicit financial activity by the DPRK and will not allow state-sponsored thievery and its money-laundering enablers to go unanswered.” Lazarus returnsĪlong with Blender.io, the OFAC also stated that the North Korean-sponsored hacker organisation, the Lazarus Group was involved in the Axie heist. “Virtual currency mixers that assist illicit transactions pose a threat to US national security interests. “For the first time ever, Treasury is sanctioning a virtual currency mixer,” Nelson stated. Nelson, the Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, stated that this was the very first time that the US government meted out sanctions against a currency mixer. Overall, Blender was responsible for laundering $20.5 million, or less than 10 per cent of the total stolen. The OFAC found that Blender had not only facilitated the laundering of this money, but that it also laundered money for Russian ransomware groups like Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Gandcrab. “We are still in the process of adding additional security measures before redeploying the Ronin Bridge to mitigate future risk,” Ronin says, adding that will bring its bridge back online “by the end of the month.” The bridge allows users to transfer funds between other blockchains and Axie Infinity and has been blocked off since the attack.The United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it will be launching sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixing platform Blender.io for its role in the laundering of the $625 million stolen during the hack against Axie Infinity‘s Ronin Bridge.
In an updated post about the incident, the Ronin Network, which is owned by developer group Sky Mavis, said it expects to deliver a full post-mortem of the crypto-heist by the end of the month. “With recent reports that North Korea may be again preparing for nuclear testing, today’s sanctions activity highlights the importance of ensuring that Lazarus Group is not able to successfully launder the proceeds of these attacks.” “Many commentators believe that crypto assets stolen by Lazarus Group are used to fund the state’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Elliptic said. The complaint alleges that Park was a member of a government-sponsored hacking team known to the private sector as the Lazarus Group, and worked for a North Korean government front company, Chosun Expo Joint Venture (a/k/a Korea Expo Joint Venture or KEJV), to support the DPRK government’s malicious cyber actions. This ensures the state-sponsored group - which has previously been linked to a 2014 hack on Sony Pictures and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attacks - can’t cash out through U.S.-based crypto exchanges any further funds they continue to hold. individuals and entities from making transactions with the identified Ethereum account. The newly announced sanctions prohibit U.S. Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic estimated that 14% of the stolen funds had already been laundered, while another $9.7 million worth is in intermediary wallets in preparation for laundering. The wallet itself - which held 148,000 ether as of Thursday - was discovered by the FBI as part of its ongoing investigation of the threat posed by North Korea and state-sponsored actors like Lazarus Group. The heist, which totaled $625 million at the time, is the largest decentralized finance hack to date, according to the DeFiYield REKT database, which tracks DeFi scams, hacks and exploits. Treasury’s wallet address is identical to the one used in the Ronin hack, which saw the attackers exploit the network for 173,600 ether, or about $597 million, and $25.5 million worth of the stablecoin USDC. Blockchain analysis firms Elliptic and Chainalysis have both confirmed that the U.S. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday announced new sanctions against an Ethereum wallet belonging to Lazarus. officials have linked North Korean state-backed hacking group Lazarus to the recent theft of $625 million in cryptocurrency from the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-based sidechain made for the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.