• The government body announced sanctions against the ethereum wallet of the group
The US Treasury Department linked North Korea’s state-backed hacking collective Lazarus Group with a $615 million theft due to a cryptocurrency hack, from the Axie Infinity-linked Ronin bridge.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday announced new sanctions against an ethereum wallet belonging to Lazarus.
Coindesk reported that the identified wallet contained funds related to an attack on the Ronin Network, which supports the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity.
More than $600 million worth of ether and USDC tokens were stolen in the attack. Coindesk’s report mentioned that nearly 14% of the stolen funds had already been laundered by Thursday.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic explained the effect of the sanctions on the Ethereum wallet in a blog post. The newly announced sanctions prohibit U.S. individuals and entities from making transactions with the identified ethereum account to make sure the hackers can’t “cash-out” any funds they may hold with American crypto exchanges.
CNBC reported that Lazarus has been associated with several major cyberattacks over the years, including a 2014 hack on Sony Pictures and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attacks.
Coindesk reported that Thursday’s action is the first time the Treasury's sanctions office has blacklisted an alleged Lazarus-held crypto wallet.