U.S. Treasury Sanctions Crypto Mixer Sinbad For Laundering $850 Million For North Korean Hackers Lazarus
Shayan Chowdhury29 Nov 20232 min read
The United States Treasury Department, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has imposed stringent sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixer Sinbad. This action follows allegations that Sinbad played a significant role in laundering stolen funds for the North Korea-based hacking group, Lazarus.
Sinbad Was Involved In Axie Infinity Heist
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department has levied sanctions against the crypto mixer Sinbad, citing its alleged role in laundering money for the Lazarus Group, a hacking organization based in North Korea.
According to an announcement made on November 29 by OFAC, Sinbad was involved in “processing millions of dollars in virtual currency from various cyber heists carried out by the Lazarus Group.”
This includes major security breaches such as the June 2022 Horizon Bridge hack, the March 2022 Ronin Bridge hack affecting Axie Infinity, and the June 2023 attack on Atomic Wallet. These incidents collectively led to an estimated loss of around $850 million at the time they occurred.
According to Chainalysis, a leading analytics firm, in their latest annual report, Sinbad.io, a crypto mixer service established by an unidentified founder, emerged as a preferred tool for the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus in 2022. This assessment was agreed by experts at Elliptic, who in February stated their belief that Sinbad is essentially a rebranded version of Blender, a mixer previously blacklisted by OFAC in 2022.
By Wednesday, the US government had successfully taken control of the Sinbad website, further tightening its grip on illicit crypto operations.
The OFAC of the Treasury Department has blacklisted two Bitcoin addresses and two email addresses associated with Sinbad. This action prohibits all U.S. individuals and entities using the global financial system from engaging with these addresses.
North Korea’s Dominance In Crypto Hacking
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said,
“Mixing services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences. The Treasury Department and its US government partners stand ready to deploy all tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illicit activities.”
The statement was released amidst ongoing legal battles by cryptocurrency advocacy groups against OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash. This mixing service was penalized in August 2022 for helping Lazarus in laundering over $455 million in illicitly obtained funds.
Since June 2023, the North Korean hacking group has reportedly amassed close to $240 million in cryptocurrency through a string of attacks. These heists include breaches of Atomic Wallet with $100 million stolen, CoinsPaid with $37.3 million, Alphapo with $60 million, Stake.com with $41 million, and CoinEx with $31 million.
Lazarus was also linked to using Avalanche Bridge for over 9,500 bitcoin transactions and cross-chain methods for moving assets, amid warnings from South Korea’s NIS about North Korean attacks on its shipbuilding industry.
