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Crypto Mixer From Hacking Axie Infinity Goes Under Sanction

 


The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for enforcing international sanctions, officially announced yesterday that the crypto mixer Blender.io has been accused of its role in the hacking of Axie Infinity's Ronin Bridge is now being sanctioned as well. The North Korean hacker collective Lazarus Group, which is held responsible for the attack, is said to have laundered most of the stolen funds through the mixer.


Brian E. Nelson, the agency's senior director of terrorism financing and financial crime, explains :


“Today, the Ministry of Finance sanctioned a so-called virtual currency mixer for the first time. [...] We stand up against financial crimes originating in North Korea and will not stand idly by during this state-sponsored rip-off and money laundering.”

Effective immediately, all Blender.io funds that are either located in the United States or held by American citizens will be blocked and must be reported to OFAC, effective immediately.


According to the authority, Blender.io alone is said to have laundered USD 20.5 million of the USD 620 million stolen from the hacker attack on the blockchain game Axie Infinity, which was originally paid in the form of 173,600 Ether ( ETH ) and 25.5 million USD coin ( USDC ) were captured. In its investigations into the platform, OFAC also found that Blender.io was also said to have engaged in money laundering in connection with Russian ransomware extortionists, including the groups Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Gandcrab. At the time of going to press, the crypto mixer's website is already offline.


In addition, the agency has also added four wallet addresses believed to belong to the Lazarus Group to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.

The attack on the Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge was carried out on March 23 , but was not discovered until a week later. The bridge was accessed via the developer studio responsible, Sky Mavis, which later provided 150 million US dollars to pay damages to affected users. Market-leading crypto exchange Binance was able to freeze and return $5.8 million that flowed to its platform from the hack. In mid-April, OFAC identified the Lazarus Group as responsible for the attack .

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