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North Korean hackers have pilfered $3B of crypto over past six years: Report

December 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

North Korean hackers have pilfered B of crypto over past six years: Report

Coin Telegraph

In 2022, North Korean hackers swiped crypto worth ten times more than the country earned from exports in 2021, according to US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

According to United States cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, North Korean hackers have stolen around $3 billion in cryptocurrency since 2017, with more than half of that amount stolen in the past year alone.

Recorded Future indicated in a recent report that the amount of stolen crypto equates to approximately half of North Korea’s entire military expenses for the year:

"North Korean threat actors were accused of stealing an estimated $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2022 alone, a sum equivalent to approximately 5% of North Korea’s economy or 45% of its military budget.”

Since 2017, North Korea has significantly increased its focus on the cryptocurrency industry, stealing an estimated $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency. pic.twitter.com/cES9gq2AK3
— Recorded Future (@RecordedFuture) November 30, 2023

Furthermore, the stolen amount surpasses the total annual income from exports for the nation by a considerable margin.

“This amount is also almost 10 times more than the value of North Korea's exports in 2021, which sat at $182 million,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, it explained that North Korean hackers initially targeted South Korea for its crypto, before expanding their focus to the rest of the world:

“North Korean cyber operators shifted their targeting from traditional finance to this new digital financial technology by first targeting the South Korean cryptocurrency market before significantly expanding their reach globally.”

It was noted that support from the North Korean government has led to a significant expansion in the scale of the illicit operation.

Tornado Cash token falls 57% after Binance announces delisting

November 27, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

TORN fell from $3.90 to $1.66 after Binance announced it would no longer carry the coin.

The governance token for crypto mixer Tornado Cash (TORN) has fallen by over 50% on Nov. 26-27, according to data from Coingecko. The crash came on the same day that crypto exchange Binance announced it was delisting the token.

*Tornado Cash 24-hour chart. Source: Coingecko.*

Tornado Cash is a cryptocurrency mixing protocol. Its token, TORN, is used to vote on proposals for upgrading the protocol. On Nov. 26-27, the token took a nosedive, falling from $3.90 to just $1.66, a decline of 57%. The price decline happened as the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, Binance, announced that it will stop accepting deposits of TORN on Dec. 8 and will no longer process withdrawals after March 7, 2024.

On Aug. 8, Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) for allegedly facilitating money laundering. This legally barred U.S. residents from using the protocol.

Binance originally claimed that it did not allow U.S. residents to use its exchange. But on Nov. 21, the United States Department of Justice announced that it had reached a plea deal with Binance. As part of the deal, Binance admitted that it had served some U.S. customers without having a license to do business in the US.

In its announcement, Binance said it delisted TORN because the token no longer meets its standard for listable assets, based on a variety of factors. “At Binance, we periodically review each digital asset we list to ensure that it continues to meet the high level of standard we expect,” the Binance team stated. “When a coin or token no longer meets this standard, or the industry changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it.”

Vivek Ramaswamy unveils crypto policy platform criticizing mixer sanctions

November 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Republican candidate claimed that mixers are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy unveiled a crypto policy framework on November 16 at the North American Blockchain Summit (NABS) in Fort Worth, Texas.

Called, “The Three Freedoms of Crypto,” the framework states that developers of smart contract code should not be held liable for the actions of people who use the code.

In the document, Ramaswamy vowed to “direct government prosecutors to prosecute bad actors, not the code they use and not the developers who write that code,” if elected President. In an accompanying speech, Ramaswamy specifically targeted sanctions against crypto mixer Tornado Cash, stating “the case brought against the Tornado Cash folks, for example … you can’t go after the developers of code.”

In the document, Ramaswamy also promised to provide regulatory clarity that gives new cryptocurrencies “safe harbor” exemptions from securities laws for a period of time after they are launched and to prevent any federal agency from creating rules that limit the use of self-hosted wallets.

LIVE ON @X — Unveiling my Three Freedoms of Crypto policy from the stage of the North American Blockchain Summit. @txblockchain_ https://t.co/0szwPNAfuj
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 16, 2023

Tornado Cash and other crypto mixers allow users to deposit crypto and have it sent to a different address than the one they deposit with. But in the process, it is mixed with other users’ crypto. This effectively obscures the identity of the person receiving the funds.

In August, 2022, Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Government on the grounds that it was being used to facilitate money laundering. Critics of this decision have long argued that sanctioning Tornado Cash was a violation of freedom of speech, as it applied to the code itself rather than a person or group of persons operating an enterprise.

In his speech, Ramasway agreed with the critics, claiming that sanctions against mixers violate the First Amendment, stating:

“I believe that code is a form of speech and is protected by the First Amendment. So when you take an example, like the case brought against the Tornado Cash folks for example, put aside the specifics of whether what was done is right or wrong. You can't go after the developers of code. What you actually need to implement is going after individual bad actors that are breaking the laws that already exist on the books.”

According to RealClearPolitics, the latest Republican Presidential Primary polls for New Hampshire show Ramaswamy in third or fourth place, behind Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and possibly Ron DeSantis, depending on which poll is consulted. He is currently getting between 0% and 8% of the Republican vote, according to these November 16 polls. Ramaswamy announced on May 21 that he would accept Bitcoin campaign donations.

Tornado Cash users file appeal over judgment in favor of US Treasury

November 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The six individuals, supported by crypto exchange Coinbase, have taken a case involving the U.S. Treasury sanctioning Tornado Cash to federal appellate court.

A group of Tornado Cash users has filed an appeal in federal court following a ruling upholding the United States Treasury’s decision to add the cryptocurrency mixer to its list of sanctioned entities.

In a Nov. 13 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, lawyers representing plaintiffs Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale and Nate Welch argued that the U.S. Treasury “stretched [its] authority beyond recognition” in sanctioning Tornado Cash transactions. The filing came in response to an August decision by a Texas federal judge who ruled the crypto mixer could be sanctioned under the regulatory purview of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

“The district court erred by concluding that the Department satisfied three of the requirements for a designation under [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] and the North Korea Act,” said the Nov. 13 filing. “[T]he Department’s action is contrary to law and in excess of statutory authority under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

According to the plaintiffs, smart contracts under Tornado Cash identified in the lawsuit were “immutable and ownerless” and failed to meet the U.S. Treasury’s regulatory definition of “property” subject to sanctions. The appeal also challenged Treasury’s definition of “interest,” claiming Tornado Cash has no “legal, equitable, or beneficial interest” in users’ smart contracts.

The filing was the latest legal move in a lawsuit first filed by the six individuals in September 2022. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list in August 2022, prompting criticism and outrage from many in the space.

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said in a Nov. 13 X thread he supported the efforts of the plaintiffs, saying the appellate court would carefully consider the filing. The crypto exchange has been publicly supporting Van Loon and the other plaintiffs since the September 2022 lawsuit.

Ordinary Americans do extraordinary and admirable things. With the support of @coinbase and many others, today the Loon plaintiffs took their case to the 5th Cir. to challenge sanctions against the ownerless, immutable software known as Tornado Cash. https://t.co/jALDHx950v 1/6
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) November 13, 2023

Crypto advocacy group Coin Center, which filed its own lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury over Tornado Cash in October 2022, similarly lost its case in Florida federal court. The group filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Nov. 6.

U.S. authorities have also pursued criminal charges against individuals involved with Tornado Cash. In August, the Justice Department charged co-founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Storm was released on a $2-million bond following his arrest and pleaded not guilty to all charges in September, while Semenov was not in custody at the time of publication. Authorities in the Netherlands arrested Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev for similar charges related to money laundering in August 2022. He was released in April 2023 to await trial.

Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

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Tornado cash