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{"id":5296,"date":"2022-05-07T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T14:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/07\/us-punishes-blender-io-for-helping-north-korea-launder-millions-in-stolen-axie-crypto\/"},"modified":"2022-05-07T14:41:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T14:41:05","slug":"us-punishes-blender-io-for-helping-north-korea-launder-millions-in-stolen-axie-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/07\/us-punishes-blender-io-for-helping-north-korea-launder-millions-in-stolen-axie-crypto\/","title":{"rendered":"US punishes Blender.io for helping North Korea launder millions in stolen Axie crypto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/5\/6\/23060544\/us-treasury-blender-io-sanctions-bitcoin-mixer<\/a>
\n
<\/br><\/code><\/p>\n

\n

The US Treasury Department announced on Friday<\/a> that it\u2019s sanctioning Blender.io, essentially cutting the Bitcoin mixer off from the US financial system (legally speaking, anyway). The department alleges that the service, which lets people obfuscate the record usually kept by the blockchain, was used by North Korea to \u201csupport its malicious cyber activities and money-laundering of stolen virtual currency.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to the Treasury\u2019s press release, Blender.io was used by the Lazarus hacking group to launder $20.5 million worth of the cryptocurrency it allegedly stole from the crypto-based game Axie Infinity<\/em>. The entire proceeds of the hack, which the Treasury linked to Lazarus and North Korea in April<\/a>, were estimated to be worth around $625 million at the time<\/a>, though a few million dollars worth of funds have been recovered<\/a>. The Treasury says that Lazarus is sponsored by North Korea\u2019s government and that the country uses hackers to \u201cgenerate revenue for its unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s press release says this is the first time it\u2019s ever levied sanctions against a virtual currency mixer. (It has done other crypto-related sanctions, though; notably, last year, it issued its first sanction against an exchange<\/a>.) Blender.io wasn\u2019t the only tool the hackers used, though \u2014 to start, the funds stolen from Axie Infinity<\/em>\u2019s Ronin network were originally in Ethereum and USDC, and Blender works with Bitcoin; at some point, there had to be a conversion. There are also reports that the hackers filtered some of the funds through Tornado Cash<\/a>, a service meant to make it harder to track transactions.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury also alleges that Blender laundered money for ransomware organizations like Conti<\/a>, Trickbot<\/a>, and Sodinokibi (aka REvil)<\/a>. Now that it\u2019s sanctioned, it won\u2019t be able to access any of its funds that were stored within the US, nor can it do transactions with American companies or citizens<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/picture>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s description of how Blender.io works.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: US Department of the Treasury<\/cite><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Blender and other mixers work by pooling together deposited funds, then randomly distributing them. Because transactions are recorded on the blockchain, it can be very difficult to use stolen funds without using these types of services. Stolen coins go into the blender, and the hackers will, in theory, get clean coins back. (And whoever ends up with the stolen coins can point back to the mixer, saying \u201cWell, you can see I didn\u2019t take them out of the wallet myself.\u201d)<\/p>\n

As happened with the Axie<\/em> hack, governments can sanction wallets that are affiliated with hacking groups, and researchers can track stolen crypto\u2019s movement. If criminals want to convert their ill-gotten crypto into, say, Lamborghinis<\/a>, they have to make sure that\u2019s not being traced.<\/p>\n

Of course, as the Treasury points out, there are perfectly legal uses for this kind of service \u2014 people could use them to gain some semblance of privacy when making purchases with crypto, for instance. But with the department keeping such a close eye on crypto crimes<\/a>, it\u2019s starting to feel like firms will have to be very careful about whose money they take and tumble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


<\/br><\/code><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/5\/6\/23060544\/us-treasury-blender-io-sanctions-bitcoin-mixer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The US Treasury Department announced on Friday that it\u2019s sanctioning Blender.io, essentially cutting the Bitcoin mixer off from the US financial system (legally speaking, anyway). The department alleges that the service, which lets people obfuscate the record usually kept by the blockchain, was used by North Korea to \u201csupport its malicious cyber activities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-5296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","category-technology","tag-policy"],"yoast_head":"\nUS punishes Blender.io for helping North Korea launder millions in stolen Axie crypto - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/07\/us-punishes-blender-io-for-helping-north-korea-launder-millions-in-stolen-axie-crypto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US punishes Blender.io for helping North Korea launder millions in stolen Axie crypto - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: The US Treasury Department announced on Friday that it\u2019s sanctioning Blender.io, essentially cutting the Bitcoin mixer off from the US financial system (legally speaking, anyway). 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