Between 2014 and late 2017, Bittrex allowed around 1,800 people in sanctioned jurisdictions – including Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Crimea – to conduct more than 116,000 transactions worth roughly $260 million through its platform, according to the settlement. The Seattle, Washington-based exchange has since taken action to better comply with sanctions blacklists. Source
Crypto mixer Tornado Cash has returned to the software development platform GitHub after several weeks of being banned on the website. Ethereum developer Preston Van Loon took to Twitter on Thursday to report that GitHub has partly unbanned the Tornado Cash organization and contributors on their platform. The developer suggested that Tornado Cash’s code repositories are now in read-only mode, which means that GitHub is yet to restore full functionality. “But that is progress from an outright ban. I still encourage GitHub to reverse all actions and return the repositories to…
Coinbase’s lawsuit claims the sanctions themselves are a violation of the First Amendment, which establishes the right of free speech. In the landmark case of 1996, Bernstein v. the Department of Justice (DOJ), it was established that computer code should be considered speech, and the right to free speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Source
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has published a specially designated nationals list update (OFAC’s SDN List) that lists a number of individuals accused of being involved with Iran-related ransomware. The list further shows seven bitcoin addresses that are allegedly associated with the Iranian ransomware gang. Iran Adds 7 New Bitcoin Addresses to the SDN List Following the Tornado Cash Ban Following the Treasury’s Office watchdog OFAC banning the ethereum mixer Tornado Cash, OFAC published a new SDN List update on September 14, 2022. The SDN List update…
Just as a bank protects its customers’ financial activities, privacy tools like mixers are designed to protect Bitcoin users’ activities from prying eyes. Sure, some people take advantage of mixers for illicit purposes, but others just want to keep their financial activities, like charitable and political donations, for example, private. (Remember the Canadian truckers?) Source
On Tuesday, a newly published report details that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is under federal investigation for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions, according to five people familiar with the matter. The unknown sources explained that the inquiry into Kraken started in 2019, and it’s accused of allowing users from sanctioned countries like Iran access to the digital currency trading platform. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Is Allegedly Investigating Kraken The San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken is allegedly under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC),…
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has added three ethereum addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN). OFAC alleges the ether addresses are controlled by the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group that is associated with North Korea. Lazarus Group Behind Axie Infinity Heist The U.S. Treasury Department’s OFAC has added three ethereum addresses that are allegedly associated linked with the Lazarus Group cybercrime syndicate to its SDN list. The addition of the addresses comes a few weeks after U.S. authorities accused the Lazarus Group and…
The firm and 10 of its subsidiaries were added to OFAC’s list of designated nationals subject to sanctions on Wednesday. Source
According to the project’s official Twitter account, Tornado Cash, the ethereum mixing service that allows participants to shuffle ether, is blocking flagged ethereum addresses listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN). The decision follows the recent OFAC update, that lists the Ronin exploiter’s ethereum address, and further notes that the ether wallet is allegedly associated with the infamous North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group. Ethereum Mixer Tornado Cash Blocks OFAC Sanctioned Addresses Tornado Cash announced on April 15, 2022, that the…
On Friday, Tornado Cash announced that it was using oracle contracts from Chainalysis to block wallet addresses sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. The move comes after the U.S. Department of the Treasury linked North Korean cybercriminal Lazarus Group as an alleged perpetrator for the recent $600 million+ Ronin Bridge exploit. As told by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the hackers have sent approximately $80.3 million worth of Ether (ETH) through Tornado Cash. “Maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom; however, it should not…