Blender.io was sanctioned on Friday by the US Treasury Department for its involvement in the Axie Infinity money laundering. The Treasury Department authorized a virtual currency mixer for the first time, marking a historic milestone.
On March 23, a North Korean cyber group known as Lazarus accessed the Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge and stole more than $620 million. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, hackers used Blender.io to manage approximately $20.5 million in illegal profits. Actually, the website was down at the time of writing this article.
What is Blender.io?
For starters, Blender.io (Blender) is a virtual currency blender that operates on the Bitcoin blockchain. Before transmitting the transactions to their final destinations, Blender will merge the transactions. Once the money is mixed, we will not be able to distinguish between the stolen money and the legitimate one. Even though these cryptocurrency mixers were intended to promote confidentiality, a large number of criminals used them to launder money.
Since its inception in 2017, this platform has helped move more than $500 million worth of Bitcoin. Blender.io is suspected of helping other Russia-linked ransomware groups to launder money. You also have to count on Gandcrab and Trickbot.
Did the victims of the Ronin Bridge breach receive a refund?
Actually yes. Early last month, Sky Mavis, the company that developed Axie Infinity, set aside $450 million to compensate the victims of the Ronin Bridge assault. In addition, the company raised $150 million from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange to reimburse users. In total, 600 million dollars, which should be enough to cover most of the outstanding funds.
