Sanctioned cryptocurrency tool appears to reemerge under new name

A popular tool that North Korean government-affiliated hackers had allegedly used to disguise their cryptocurrency transactions appears to have resurfaced under a new name after being sanctioned by the US government. The revival shows that sanctions they can serve as a setback for cryptocurrency mixers, but sometimes it is not permanent. Last year, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions against a cryptocurrency mixer called Blender. It closed around the same time. Now, its operators have likely relaunched it under the name Sinbad, according to cryptocurrency monitoring firm Elliptic. The North Korean hacking organization known as Lazarus Group has already used Sinbad to launder more than $100 million, the firm said in an analysis. In the case of Sinbad, its operator or operators benefited from around $22 million believed to have been taken from Blender, Elliptic said. “It's very easy for an anonymous blender operator to redeploy the infrastructure and operate under a new brand,” Tom Robinson, the company's chief scientist and co-founder, told me. “If the sanctions are tied to the name of a particular service, that clearly poses a problem for the application of sanctions.” “However, in practice, mixers need users and liquidity to be effective, which can be difficult for a new brand to attract,” Robinson said. "Sinbad appears to have attempted to start himself off with Blender funds, which left a trail of money linking the two services."

Complete analisis: The sanctioned cryptocurrency tool appears to be resurfacing under a new name.

Sanctioned cryptocurrency tool appears to reemerge under new name

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