Security News > 2022 > May > U.S. Sanctions Cryptocurrency Mixer Blender for Helping North Korea Launder Millions

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday moved to sanction virtual currency mixer Blender.io, marking the first time a mixing service has been subjected to economic blockades.

Cryptocurrency mixers, also called tumblers, are privacy-focused services that allow users to move cryptocurrency assets between accounts without leaving a transaction trail by obfuscating their origins.

Since its launch in 2017, Blender is estimated to have transferred more than $500 million worth of Bitcoin.

On April 16, the Treasury Department blocklisted the Ethereum wallet address that received the stolen digital currency, although by then the Lazarus Group had managed to launder 18% of the siphoned funds through centralized exchanges and an Ethereum mixing service called Tornado Cash.

The sanctioning of Blender is evidence that the "Lazarus Group had moved some of the stolen funds into Bitcoin," Elliptic pointed out.

In recent years, North Korea has been attached to a string of cyber-enabled heists from cryptocurrency exchanges and financial entities as a way of getting around international sanctions and generating revenue for its nuclear weapons program.

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