- The United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) carries out sanctions against Blender(dot)io.
- The crypto mixer has apparently processed around $20.5 million out of the $620 million taken by the unethical actors.
- This Ronin Bridge hack was carried out in late March and was discovered later.
The United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has recently announced that it was sanctioning cryptocurrency mixer Blender(dot)io for its part in the laundering proceeds from the hacking of the Ronin Bridge of Axie Infinity.
The Lazarus Group, which is the North Korean state-sponsored hackers, has been identified as the bad actors here.
According to Brian E. Nelson, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, who highlighted in a statement today, Treasury is sanctioning a virtual currency mixer for the first time. There are taking action against illegal activity by the DPRK and will not facilitate state-sponsored thievery and its money-laundering enablers to go unanswered.
All Blender(dot)io property in the United States or in possession of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC under the sanctions.
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The OFAC highlighted that Blender.io processed $20.5 million out of around $620 million stolen from the play-to-earn game based in Vietnam in the form of nearly 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) and 173,600 Ether (ETH). It also discovered in its investigation that Blender(dot)io had enabled money laundering for Russia-linked ransomware groups comprising Conti, Sodinokibi, Trickbot, Gandcrab, and Ryuk.
The Treasury agency also signified that the Lazarus Group utilized the addresses of four wallets to launder some of the theft funds to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.
This hack on the Ronin Bridge was carried out in late March but was discovered later on.
Illicit and unethical activities are not new in the crypto space, but it is also in the hands of the users to be aware of such fraudulent activities.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/05/07/u-s-treasury-sanctions-a-crypto-mixer-for-contributing-to-the-axie-infinity-hack/