The U.S. government is charging ahead in its pursuit of privacy tokens, according to its latest sanctions.
Per its Wednesday additions to its list of sanctioned individuals, the United States Treasury Department is targeting Monero addresses.
Russian nationals Dmitriy Karasavidi and Danil Potekhin have become the newest names on the specially designated nationals list.
According to the Treasury's announcement on the subject, the two engineered an elaborate phishing campaign targeting U.S. citizens in 2017 and 2018.
Surprisingly, Karasavidi's information includes a Monero address: 5be5543ff73456ab9f2d207887e2af87322c651ea1a873c5b25b7ffae456c320.
Though the Treasury has been updating its crypto capabilities, including last week targeting the crypto wallets of several Russian nationals allegedly involved in election interference and government-sponsored misinformation campaigns, this is the first time sanctions have singled out an XMR address.
The investigation is the result of a now-familiar collaboration between the Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
A criminal complaint has been opened charging the alleged hackers.
"The Treasury Department will continue to use our authorities to target cybercriminals and remains committed to the safe and secure use of emerging technologies in the financial sector."
The question remains though: Can the Treasury actually track that wallet's transactions?
New US Treasury sanctions on Russian hackers hit Monero address
Published on Sep 16, 2020
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Mentioned in this article
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.