The US sanctions cryptocurrency mixing service Blender.io for allegedly laundering $20.5M from the Axie Infinity hack, the first time the US sanctioned a mixer
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned a cryptocurrency mixing service for the first time, citing evidence that it was used …
The RecordJoe Warminsky
Context & Ripple Effects
The action escalates a pre-existing enforcement record against mixers: Dutch authorities had already seized Bestmixer over alleged money laundering, while FinCEN had penalized the operators of Helix and Coin Ninja. Treasury's move makes sanctions, rather than a seizure or operator fine, part of that toolkit.
Blender.io becomes the first crypto mixer specifically targeted by U.S. sanctions, while Treasury publicly ties alleged laundering of $20.5 million to the Axie Infinity compromise.
Axie Infinity's hack is recast from a platform-security incident into a sanctions-enforcement case centered on the movement of stolen funds.
Second-order effects
Other mixer operators face a newly demonstrated U.S. sanctions risk, a posture Treasury later applied to Tornado Cash and its associated wallets.
Crypto businesses dealing with mixer-linked funds face greater pressure to distinguish services implicated in hack proceeds from ordinary transaction activity.
Third-order effects
Mixer enforcement is shifting from pursuing individual operators to targeting services and their associated wallets, making financial-access controls a more central response to crypto theft.
The later U.S., Dutch, and Polish action against Sinbad suggests a durable cross-border enforcement pattern against mixers allegedly connected to major hacking groups.
The trend: Crypto-mixer enforcement is evolving from isolated seizures and fines toward sanctions-led, multinational action against services alleged to move stolen digital assets.
For the first time ever, Treasury has sanctioned a virtual currency mixer. https://blender.io/ is used by the DPRK to support malicious cyber activities & money-laundering of stolen virtual currency. https://home.treasury.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
The investigation also found links to transactions by Russia-linked ransomware groups “including Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi, and Gandcrab,” OFAC said. https://therecord.media/...
New: in a first, the U.S. government has sanctioned a cryptocurrency mixing service. North Korean hackers as well as Russian ransomware gangs used Blender to launder their Bitcoin. Shows U.S. government won't stop at just sanctioning exchanges or wallets https://www.vice.com/...
Treasury sanctions Blender cryptocurrency mixer, saying North Korea uses it to launder hacked cryptocurrency. NK allegedly used Blender to launder $21 million of the $620 million that it stole in the Axie Infinity hack. Treasury also IDs new NK addresses. https://home.treasury.go…
Blender is one of the most popular mixers on the cybercrime underground. @Intel471Inc wrote about how services like Blender are used last Nov https://intel471.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Today, @USTreasury #OFAC announced it has sanctioned virtual currency mixer #Blender, which is used by the #DPRK “to support its malicious cyber activities and money-laundering of stolen virtual currency.” https://home.treasury.gov/...
The US Treasury has issued its first-ever sanctions against a cryptocurrency mixing service, after North Korean hackers used Blender[.]io to launder some of the proceeds from the Ronin Network hack at the end of March https://home.treasury.gov/... https://twitter.com/...