The US government approves another crypto mix protocol, accusing it of helping North Korea launder hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen digital assets.
In a new press release, the US Treasury Department says the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning crypto tumbler Sinbad for allegedly helping North Korean hacking ring Lazarus Group launder stolen funds.
Sinbad, which runs on Bitcoin (BTC), aims to obscure the identities of users making transactions by combining their digital assets with a collection of other random tokens.
“Today, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Sinbad.io (Sinbad), a virtual currency mixer that serves as a key money laundering tool of the OFAC-designated Lazarus Group, a the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) state-sponsored cyber hacking group…
Sinbad was used to launder a significant portion of the $100 million in virtual currency stolen from Atomic Wallet customers on June 3, 2023. Sinbad was also used to launder a significant portion of the virtual currency from the approximately $620 million Axie Infinity heist in March 2022, and the approximately $100 million Horizon Bridge heist in June 2022.”
Deputy Secretary of Finance Wally Adeyemo said in the press release:
“Combining services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will have serious consequences.
The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners stand ready to use all available tools to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illegal activities. While we encourage responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem, we will not hesitate to take action against illegal actors.”
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Catalyst Labs