back to article Cryptocurrency laundromat Blender shredded by US Treasury in sanctions first

The US Treasury has sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Blender for its role in helping North Korea's Lazarus Group launder stolen digital assets.  As a result, among other limitations, anyone in the United States or a US person can no longer do any business with Blender without special permission from the government. This marks …

  1. Clausewitz4.0 Bronze badge
    Devil

    Mixer services

    Mixer services are a legitimate tool to keep cryptocurrency transactions private.

    I foresee services automagically exchanging Bitcoin for Monero and vice versa in the near future.

    1. Tom Womack

      Re: Mixer services

      They're really not, because keeping cryptocurrency transactions private is not a legitimate goal.

      The weird lend-real-money-against-cryptocurrency industry already regards 'coins that have gone through a mixer' as unacceptable collateral; I would expect that in the medium term it will not be possible to sell for real money coins that have ever passed through a mixer.

      1. Bachelorette

        Re: Mixer services

        Mixers have a legitimate use in our country.

        How else would the CIA anonymize their confiscated crypto-bases drug money if they don't mix it with other people's crypto first?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mixer services

      It funny how the cryptomoney services are replicating those of the banks aiming at hiding the same criminal activities, and it's also funny the appeared as banks ended under bigger scrutiny for helping money laundering.

    3. TeeCee Gold badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Mixer services

      Money laundering is a legitimate tool to keep physical currency transactions private.

      Explain the difference and "ooo, is crypto yes?" is not an answer.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Mixer services

        If money laundering is legitimate can you explain the number of prosecutions for it?

        1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
          Holmes

          Re: Mixer services

          I believe that was sarcasm.

    4. A random security guy

      Re: Mixer services

      A public blockchain does not lend itself to any form of privacy. You may be able to muddy the waters a bit but you are left with a finite list of suspects. It is only when the numbers get to 2**128 that you have a semblance of privacy.

  2. druck Silver badge
    Stop

    Time to stop the entire crypto criminal enterprise.

    1. Blackjack Silver badge

      Unfortunately criminal uses seem to be the norm in cryto, just ask Coffeezilla on YouTube.

      1. Jonathan Richards 1
        Joke

        > Unfortunately criminal uses seem to be the norm in cryto

        Somebody's takin' the p.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    A heist and a fence

    If you rob a bank and sell the potentially marked money to a fence in return for unmarked bills both you and the fence have committed crimes.

    This is no different at all and should rightly be treated as such.

  4. Ian Johnston Silver badge

    Mixing illicit proceeds with a variety of other transactions, many of which are legitimate

    Legitimate cryptocurrency transactions? What an odd idea.

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Meh

      Buying bitcoins or other pretend money in the hope of selling it to a greater fool is "legitimate" in a legal sense. It is not something I would recommend though.

      1. EnviableOne

        All currency that is not linked to something with a real-world intrinsic value eg gold is pretend money, including those Dollar Bills

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Some of which may, just possibly, be legitimate.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Personally I'm surprised "Uncle Sam" just hasn't made cryptocurrency flat-out illegal, given how willing they are to wage a futile war on drugs... their response to EVERY social problem seems to be to make it "illegal" and sic gun-toting cops in the perpetrators...

    1. veti Silver badge

      They want to keep their options open. You never know when some crypto capacity might come in handy.

      Well, if you're Uncle Sam that is. I doubt if the same logic applies for the rest of us.

    2. Clausewitz4.0 Bronze badge
      Devil

      Making crypto illegal would strength the adversaries and undermine research in blockchain technology.

      Its a two-edged knife.

      1. druck Silver badge

        You mean the desperate attempt to find a use for energy guzzling blockchain that isn't a criminal money laundering scheme?

      2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

        undermine research in blockchain technology
        It's been 13 years now and they still haven't found an application for which it's superior to existing technology, other than crime. How long do you think they need?

    3. A random security guy

      The US has actually embraced cryptocurrency. There is an Executive Order doing just that.

      1. Ropewash

        So they are at the "embrace" stage of the Microsoft playbook.

  6. MrGreen

    Misinformation Campaign

    3 - 5% of fiat currency is used for illicit activities.

    Only 0.15% of crypto is used for illicit activities.

    The banking system misinformation campaign is working well.

    We can’t have a new banking system where the peasants can control their own money otherwise we become irrelevant. Let’s blame everything on crypto.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Misinformation Campaign

      Both those numbers are obviously bollocks.

      Next!

      1. MrGreen

        Re: Misinformation Campaign

        US Treasury report says different.

        https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/2022-National-Money-Laundering-Risk-Assessment.pdf

        Obviously your reading skills are bollocks.

        Next.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Misinformation Campaign

      What a shock. Criminals outside the tech sector prefer hard, untraceable cash to digital fantasies.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The whole thing is rotten, burn it down

    Good.

    Now do Tornado Cash.

  8. Danny 2

    Crypto-mugs

    I hate to be The Guardian guy here but they have a schadenfreude article about people being mugged for relatively small amounts of crypto-currency.

    I worry about my posh nephew and niece in London, I bought them QuickClot bandages for when they get stabbed, the same the US Marines are issued. I grew up with that stabbing threat here, constant fighting, they are not aware.

    Him and his posh friend were mugged in Primrose Hill, a posh area I've been told, and the muggers demanded his friends £400 designer jacket or else they'd be stabbed. He intervened and demanded to see the knives, concerned it was a bluff. Right enough, combat knives came out. "Michael, you either fight or concede, you don't demand to see weapons especially when it wasn't your jacket."

    Most criminal violence comes from the cocaine trade, so legalise and tax it. I say that as someone who can't take cocaine, it knocks me out and makes me piss my pants. It's a thing.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: Crypto-mugs

      Legalise weed and cocaine. Put them on the same footing as alcohol. Regulate and tax. Cut the bottom out of the illegal market and it will 99% disappear.

      Free up the massively limited police resources we do still have from the vast waste of time that is prosecuting people for minor possension, so they could focus on more useful things.

      Driving high is already illegal, so don't change that. Turning up at work high would be the same as turning up drunk, and put your job at risk. No change needed there.

      The entire country won't suddenly start taking drugs just because they're legal. It's not like they're difficult to get as it is. Most people that will take them are those already taking them. We just won't be criminalising a huge chunk of the population.

      1. Danny 2

        Re: Crypto-mugs

        I cycled in to work near Leiden after a bleary night of White Widow. It's not why I moved there, but when in Rome, and I'll try anything once except morris dancing.

        I assumed I could bluff it by blaming it on my hay-fever. Nope. "Ah yes, the hay is very strong here."

        Busted. The guy later explained to me that they knew exactly what was in my system through urine testing. "But I've not had my urine tested." "You've used a urinal here, right?"

        I couldn't care if cocaine was legalised but I would love if cannabis was, probably extend my life. I drank far less there.

        Me and my mate went drunk into a room full of smokers, my mate was far too chatty for them - kind of like I am on this forum. He called them ponderous tortoises and after a minute one of them took offence claiming, "I read an article, er, er, I read an article somewhere, um, that smoking dope speeds up your reflexes". It clearly does not, but it has other benefits.

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