The US punishes Blender.io for its involvement in the hack Axie Infinity-Information Technology

On May 6, the US Treasury Department announced it would punish the Blender.io cryptocurrency mixing service by cutting it from the legal financial system in the US.

Blender.io was used by hackers to “support cybercriminal activity and launder stolen cryptocurrency,” according to the US Treasury Department’s accusations.

According to a press release from the US Department of the Treasury, the Lazarus hacker group – which the US accuses of being funded by a government organization – used the Bitcoin mixing service Blender.io to launder $20.5 million in stolen cryptocurrency. from the blockchain game Axie Infinity. The entire hack took about 625 million USD, although several million USD in cryptocurrency was recovered.

This is the first time the US Treasury Department has decided to sanction a cryptocurrency mixing service. However, Blender.io is not the only tool used by the Axie Infinity hacker, with some reports suggesting that Tornado Cash was also used to conceal stolen Ethereum and USDC cryptocurrencies.

The US Treasury Department also alleges that Blender.io laundered money for ransomware groups such as Conti, Trickbot and REvil/Sodinokibi. With the sanctions, Blender.io will not be able to access deposits in the US or conduct transactions with individuals or entities in the US.

Mixing services like Blender.io and Tornado Cash can of course be used for legitimate purposes – some people may want to increase security and privacy when paying and transferring crypto. However, with these services being repeatedly used by hackers to launder money, it is likely that the company providing the service will have to have a tight policy and control who uses its service.