US Office of Foreign Assets Control have added Blender.io, a transactional concealment service, or Mixer, has been added to the list of organizations sanctioned for their dealings with North Korea.
inpress releaseOn Friday, the US government found links of the website to groups in North Korea to launder stolen digital money. which includesattack Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge March It said North Koreans used Blender.io to process $20.5 million of the nearly $620 million stolen.
“Today, for the first time, there has been a boycott of crypto-currency concealment services,” Brian E. Nelson of the Treasury Department for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said in a statement.
“A crypto-currency concealment service that helps in illegal transactions. It is a threat to US security interests. And we are dealing with illegal financial activities by the DPRK.”
In addition to identifying 46 addresses linked to Blender.io, the US added four new wallet addresses used by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
According to the Treasury Department, Blender.io has facilitated more than $500 million worth of Bitcoin transfers since it launched in 2017, and the investigation has also linked money laundering transactions by Russian-linked ransomware groups such as Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Gandcrab .
The Ministry of Finance said it would continue to investigate the use of Mixer for illegal purposes. and consider the scope of authority required to respond to crypto-financial risks.
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