Compartir este artículo
Crypto Mixer Sanctioned by U.S. Treasury for North Korea Allegations, as FBI, Dutch and Finnish Police Seize Website
Sinbad was used to launder stolen crypto assets, according to the Treasury.
The U.S. Treasury Department has blocked a crypto mixing service from the global dollar financial system on allegations it supported transactions tied to North Korea's infamous hacking group.
Sinbad's website was also seized by the FBI, Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD), Openbaar Ministerie (the Netherlands' public prosecutor's office) and Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
A Treasury press release described Sinbad as "a virtual currency mixer that serves as a key money-laundering tool of the OFAC-designated Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored cyber hacking group of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)."
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated two Bitcoin addresses and two email addresses tied to Sinbad, banning all U.S. persons and anyone who transacts with the global financial system from interacting with the addresses in future.
According to a Blockchain.com block explorer, one address currently holds around 0.35 BTC (worth around $13,000) at the moment, but has received a hair over 15 BTC (worth around $570,000 at current prices) overall.
The other address, designated an alternate, holds around $67 worth of bitcoin.
Sinbad processed funds from the hacks of Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity, the release said. It's also moved funds tied to "sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, the purchase of child sexual abuse materials and additional illicit sales on darknet marketplaces."
Sinbad is a relatively young mixer, crypto analytics service Chainalysis said, which began advertising in October 2022.
Fellow analytics service Elliptic claimed Sinbad was also used to move some of the $35 million stolen from Atomic Wallet earlier this year.
The Treasury Department's sanctions watchdog has previously designated Tornado Cash and other mixers as being bad actors for allowing illicit activity. Tornado Cash in particular saw similar North Korea allegations when OFAC sanctioned it last year.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson referred CoinDesk to the FBI when asked for comment. The FBI did not immediately return an email.
UPDATE (Nov. 29, 2023, 16:06 UTC): Adds additional detail.
Más para ti
Lo que debes saber:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Más para ti
Key U.S. Senator on Crypto Bill, Lummis, Negotiating Dicey Points With White House
The Republican lawmaker who is among the core negotiators on the U.S. market structure bill said the White House has rejected some ethics language.
Lo que debes saber:
- Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said she is negotiating with the White House on behalf of Senate Democrats trying to insert ethics provisions into Congress' market structure legislation.
- Lawmakers should reveal a new draft market structure bill by the end of the week and hold a markup hearing next week, she said.
Top Stories
