US Takes Aim at North Korean Crypto Laundering (nbcnews.com) 8
The U.S. sanctioned a cryptocurrency swap service on Friday, part of a larger effort to crack down on North Korea's practice of using hackers to steal money for the state. From a report: The sanctions, leveled against the company Blender.io, mark the first time that the U.S. Treasury Department has taken action against what is known in the cryptocurrency industry as a mixer, a for-profit service that allows users to move crypto between accounts without leaving a clear transaction record. Treasury said in a news release that North Korea has used Blender.io to launder more than $20.5 million of cryptocurrency that it allegedly stole from the online game Axie Infinity in March. Hackers stole more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game's owner. Blender.io did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Its site was inaccessible Friday.
Re:Cyber! Hackers! Crypto! (Score:4, Interesting)
It is actually big news that the US government is taking action against a mixer service due to money laundering activity, it's the first I'm aware of. Arguably the first major enforcement action against a cryptocurrency company, marking a change from the Trump administration's derpy hands-off approach that gave us the age of ransomware and tulipmania 2.0.
Re: (Score:2)
> it's the first
Overtly.
Several years ago, a US state actor took over the Helix mixer and stole funds, funneling them into their black-ops budget before being discovered and quietly wound down.
("At least that's what I've heard.")
But, hey, many protocols have built-in anonymity sets, so mixers are becoming a thing of the past. People leveraging BTC with Tether don't actually care about cryptanalysis. Surprising that the north Koreans are using mixers. Probably it's their decoy transactions.
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr... [justice.gov]
Know Your Customer (Score:2)
The article says what blender.io is doing isn't illegal, so does that mean they aren't subject to Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and US Code 1956/1957, meant to combat money laundering? Otherwise it would appear they are doing something illegal, as long as the allegations prove correct.
They're probably not yet classified as a bank (Score:2)
Basically the gov't doesn't have to try to regulate crypto out of existence, just enforcing basic laws needed for a functioning economy will do that. We learned in the 1930s that you can't just "Let'er roll".
Just go after the exchanges (Score:2)
Of course this does mean that every time you trade with an exchange you run the risk of finding out your currency has been flagged as illegal. It's a bit like having a dollar bill with it's entire sorted history written on it instead of just trace elements of cocaine.
Re: Just go after the exchanges (Score:2)
You really need to understand Greshamâ(TM)s Law better.
You look incredibly foolish.