US Treasury imposed sanctions against North Korean crypto hackers

The FBI linked the Ronin sidechain hack to the DPRK hacker group Lazarus

15.04.2022 - 11:45

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What’s new? The US Treasury Department has added to the sanctions list a wallet containing 148 000 ETH from the Ronin Network hack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) linked the sidechain attack to the Lazarus hacker group from North Korea, according to the Ronin blog. The FBI conducted the investigation jointly with the US Treasury Department.

Ronin Network’s blog

Details of the investigation. The Ronin Network hack took place on March 29, 2022, and the hackers managed to withdraw over $625 million in cryptocurrency (173 600 ETH and 25,5 million USDC). The FBI stated that another hacking group, Advance Persistent Threat 38 (APT38), was also involved in the hack and used malware to steal the funds.

Analyst firm Elliptic noted that the attackers had already managed to launder 18% of the stolen assets. The US Treasury Department has warned that any wallets that will interact with the sanctioned address will also be blocked.

What had happened before? Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith was sentenced to five years in prison for collaborating with the DPRK. He provided North Korea with information about the use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.

The US Department of Treasury also imposed sanctions on the Garantex crypto exchange and the Hydra darknet marketplace. The agency stressed that these measures should prevent Russia from evading sanctions by using cryptocurrencies.

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