US Treasury Adds Three Ethereum Wallet Addresses To North Korea-Related Sanctions List

An Ethereum wallet from North Korea has been sanctioned by the US Treasury. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - The United States Treasury has added three Ethereum wallet addresses to its sanctions list. The three wallets are allegedly linked to the hacker group responsible for the theft of more than $600 million in crypto money from the nonfungible token game Ronin sidechain Axie Infinity.

In an announcement Friday, April 22, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, listed three Ethereum addresses for the Special Designated Nationals restriction for North Korea's Lazarus Group.

US authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have targeted the group for its alleged role in retrieving more than 173.600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) from sidechain Ronin in March. This token was worth over 600 million at the time.

The US government hinted in a tweet last Friday that the address was added to the list in an attempt to stop North Korea from evading sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Nations. Blockchain records show at least one wallet address linked to the Ronin hackers sending funds to crypto-mixing services including Tornado Cash.

Chainalysis reported in January that North Korea stole about $400 million in cryptocurrencies via cyberattacks in 2021. This is their biggest gain to date. Prohibited funds associated with hacking groups from North Korea mainly in Ether by 58%, Bitcoin by 20%, and other tokens by 22%.

The addition of an ETH address is the latest move to identify digital assets introduced by OFAC as a means for sanctioned governments to obtain funding.

According to a Cointelegraph report, In April, the US government also announced it had targeted Russia-based darknet marketplace Hydra, and digital currency exchange Garantex for alleged connections to payments from ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes. So is the crypto mining company BitRiver.