Tag: OFAC

U.S. Treasury’s OFAC Bans Crypto Addresses Tied to LockBit Ransomware Group From Financial System

“The LockBit ransomware variant, like other major ransomware variants, operates in the ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ (RaaS) model, in which administrators, also called developers, design the ransomware, recruit other members — called affiliates — to deploy it, and maintain an online software dashboard called a ‘control panel’ to provide the affiliates with the tools necessary to deploy LockBit,” the DOJ press release said. Source

‘Concerning precedent’ — bloXroute Labs’ MEV relays to reject OFAC blocks

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One of the largest producers of censorship-resistant blocks on Ethereum has made a complete u-turn, announcing it will start censoring OFAC-sanctioned blocks across all of its MEV relays in compliance with local laws. The firm, bloXroute Labs — which has produced at least 400,000 Ethereum blocks from its two leading Maximal Extraction Value (MEV) relays — made the announcement of its policy change on Dec. 18 in a post on X (formerly Twitter), noting:  “Effective immediately, all bloXroute relays will reject block bids if they contain OFAC transactions.” An “OFAC…

OFAC Accepts $1.2M Fine from Crypto Exchange CoinList to Settle Allegation of Russia Sanctions Violations

“This enforcement action further emphasizes the importance for virtual currency companies and those involved in emerging technologies to incorporate risk-based sanctions compliance into their business functions, especially when the companies seek to offer financial services to a global customer base,” OFAC said in a media release. Source BitcoincryptoexchangeExchanges CryptoX Portal

Tether Freezes over 160 Ethereum Wallets Tied to OFAC Sanctions List

Reactions from the crypto community have been mixed, with some viewing Tether’s actions positively in terms of encouraging wider adoption and demonstrating improved oversight within the stablecoin market. In an unexpected move, the USDT stablecoin issuer Tether froze 161 Ethereum wallets that were found to be linked to individuals on the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list. This preemptive action by Tether represents an effort to enforce US sanctions and prevent any potential misuse of its stablecoin, USDT, by sanctioned entities. The company in its…

Fewer Transactions Sanctioned by U.S. Government’s OFAC Are Getting Through on Ethereum, Data Shows

This large percentage resulted, in part, from the fact that a small number of relayers were available in MEV-Boost’s early days, and the most popular ones were filtering out OFAC transactions. After a blowback from the Ethereum community, several “non-censoring” relayers entered the MEV-Boost fray, and it looked like the tide was turning back in favor of network neutrality. Today, only 30% of relayed blocks are “censored,” by Wahrstätter’s definition. Source CryptoX Portal

WalletConnect complies with OFAC sanctions, geo-blocks Russia and parts of Ukraine

The web3 protocol said its decision followed legal guidance from the U.S. Treasury while debunking unverified reports of restrictions on non-sanctioned countries. Wallet Connect announced an update to which regions can access its open-source protocol used for linking blockchain wallets to decentralized apps. Russian users have been geo-blocked from the platform in line with sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control  (OFAC). The sanction came into effect on Oct. 30 and that led to restrictions on two countries – Russia and certain areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian users in other…

Ethereum OFAC compliance dips to 45% post-Merge upgrade

The historic Merge upgrade from Sept. 2022 — which marked Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) — resulted in the overall decline in compliance with standards laid down by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  Ethereum blocks adhering to OFAC compliance censor certain transactions, which has a negative impact on the neutrality of the Ethereum ecosystem. In early August 2022, OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash and several Ethereum (ETH) addresses associated with it due to its ability to mask and anonymize transactions. Prior to the Merge upgrade, Ethereum’s…

Ethereum censorship concerns raised amid rising OFAC compliance

More and more Ethereum blockchain operators have complied with sanctions from the OFAC, raising censorship concerns among decentralization proponents and network participants. Toni Wahrstätter, an Ethereum researcher, noted that five of the six largest block builders on Ethereum’s blockchain actively censor certain transactions in line with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) directives.  Most of these censored transactions originate from decentralized mixer Tornado Cash, according to Wahrstätter, a protocol blacklisted by the Treasury Department due to its use by bad actors, including the North Korean hacker organization…

Rpay Secures License from OFAC to Continue Operating in Venezuela

Rpay was developed by the team behind the stablecoin protocol Reserve and currently has 600,000 registered in Latin America and 300,000 on a waiting list, Jiménez said. The platform has posted $5.7 billion in cumulative volume since going live in 2020, and it recently adopted the decentralized Electronic Dollar (eUSD) stablecoin, which tracks the US dollar. Source