PDVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, would be preparing to migrate more of its payments portfolio to USDT, a dollar stablecoin, to avoid being affected by the restitution of U.S. sanctions. Reuters reported that the company started receiving payments in USDT last year and will accelerate its adoption. Tether, nonetheless, stated it will uphold OFAC […]
Bitcoin News
OFAC Blocks Venezuelan Gold Business, Warns About Upcoming Oil Sanctions
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has revoked the license of Minerven, the Venezuela-owned gold company, for commercializing gold in international markets. The sanctions on Minerven, which were eased in October, will be applied again on February 13, with oil and gas sanctions reported to return in April.
OFAC Winds Down Venezuelan Gold Operations in International Markets
The U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has revoked a license that allowed CVG Compania General de Mineria de Venezuela CA (Minerven), the Venezuela state-owned gold company, to be part of gold transactions in international markets. The U.S. convened to revoke the sanctions on Minerven back in October when an agreement was reached with Maduro’s government to review the participation of key opposition figures in the upcoming presidential ballot.
However, according to the Biden Administration, the Venezuelan response has not been the one they expected, as the highest court in the country ratified the prohibition on Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuela opposition, to participate in the still undecided upcoming elections.
As a result, the transactions of Minerven will be winding down on February 13, and more sanctions will follow if there is no change in the decisions reached by the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal.
According to statements from Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, other sanctions might also return. He declared:
The United States has revoked sanctions relief for Venezuela’s gold sector. The relief for Venezuelan oil and gas sectors will be renewed in April only if Maduro representatives follow through on their commitments.
The Venezuelan government has rejected the Biden administration’s behavior, with National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez defiantly calling on accelerating the re-enactment of the oil, gas, and gold-related sanctions. Answering National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who stressed they had not seen any progress in the demands of the agreement, Rodriguez stated:
Save your ultimatum, sh*t Yankees. Kirby, shove your ultimatum where it fits you best.
Maduro’s government is also embroiled in a battle to regain control of roughly billion in gold held in the U.K.
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What do you think about the re-enactment of sanctions on the Venezuela-owned gold company Minerven? Tell us in the comments section below.
Bloxroute to Reject Blocks With OFAC Flagged Transactions
Bloxroute, a company that provides relaying services, has declared that it will start rejecting block bids with transactions from wallets part of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN List). Based in the U.S., the company clarified it is still committed to supporting Ethereum’s decentralized nature.
Bloxroute to Comply With OFAC SDN List Designation
Bloxroute, a company that provides relaying services for Ethereum and other networks, has reported that it will start rejecting block bids with transactions coming from wallets part of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN List).
Based in the U.S., Bloxroute stated it will still support Ethereum’s decentralized and permissionless traits while “maintaining compliance with our legal jurisdiction.” Before, Bloxroute only applied OFAC rules to its “regulated” relay, while its “max profit” relay propagated all available transactions.
In its announcement, Bloxroute declared:
Ethereum is unstoppable, permissionless, and anti-fragile because it’s decentralized and globally distributed, and not easily affected by any single entity, even if it has the best networking tech.
While the company believed this would hurt its performance, this has not happened. The performance of Bloxroute’s two different relays has been solid, being involved in more than 45% of the payloads during the last 24 hours.
Several corporate validators based in the U.S. also run OFAC-compliant relays. According to MEV Watch, 42% of the blocks produced after Ethereum’s merge have been OFAC compliant, contributing to a form of protocol-level censorship policy.
Nikita Zhavoronkov, the lead developer at Blockchair, explained how this compliance issue, prompted by institutions entering crypto, could evolve to affect the network operability of several chains.
He stated:
Once 51%+ are compliant, there’s a high chance we’ll be mere months away from the miner majority beginning to orphan blocks containing sanctioned transactions.
Zhavoronkov detailed that in this hypothetical future, privacy coins such as Monero could shine due to their fungibility characteristics and the impossibility of miners censoring transactions.
What do you think about Bloxroute’s policy change to become fully OFAC compliant? Tell us in the comments section below.
Tether Implements New Stablecoin-Freezing Policy After Seizing Funds Tied to OFAC Sanctioned Entities
Tether, a leading stablecoin company in the crypto industry, has announced a significant new initiative aimed at strengthening the security of the crypto asset ecosystem. The company announced this weekend that its recent move to voluntarily freeze tether-holding wallets linked to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List marks a proactive step towards combating illicit activities.
Tether Cracks Down on Illicit Transactions
This decision, made by Tether on December 1, 2023, supplements existing security protocols and aligns with global regulatory standards, according to the company’s announcement on the subject. Tether’s latest action includes freezing wallet addresses previously added to the SDN List, reinforcing its commitment to prevent misuse of its tokens.
Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, emphasized the strategic nature of this decision. “This strategic decision aligns with our unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards of safety for our global ecosystem and expanding our close working relationship with global law enforcement and regulators,” Ardoino stated.
The Tether CEO continued:
By executing voluntary wallet address freezing of new additions to the SDN List and freezing previously added addresses, we will be able to further strengthen the positive usage of stablecoin technology and promote a safer stablecoin ecosystem for all users.
Tether’s history of USDT freezing is not new. Previously, the company has blacklisted numerous addresses involved in suspicious transactions. These actions have included freezing over 30 USDT addresses that moved billions, as reported by the blockchain intelligence firm Chainargos. These measures were part of Tether’s ongoing collaboration with law enforcement, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), to combat illegal activities.
In one notable instance, Tether voluntarily froze 5 million in USDT linked to human trafficking groups in Southeast Asia. This action, hailed as the “largest-ever freeze of USDT,” showcased the company’s active role in preventing the misuse of its currency. Additionally, Tether seized million in assets stolen in pig butchering scams, working closely with the DOJ and U.S. Secret Service.
Tether’s stablecoin is widely utilized, and among the 11,000-plus digital assets in the cryptocurrency market, it stands out with one of the highest levels of daily transactions, trading volumes, and settlements. In a recent development, the company’s U.S. dollar-tied token, USDT, achieved a sizable market valuation of billion. Notably, the tokens operating on Ethereum and Tron networks are typically always experiencing substantial activity.
What do you think about Tether’s new asset freeze policy? Tell us in the comments section below.
Crypto Mixer Sinbad Sanctioned by OFAC Over Alleged Ties to North Korean Hackers
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on yet another cryptocurrency mixing platform, labeling Sinbad.io as a “key money-laundering tool” used by the North Korean Lazarus Group crime syndicate. Sinbad.io, in addition to handling transactions originating from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has also been linked to processing transactions associated with drug trafficking and sales on darknet marketplaces.
OFAC Sanctions Sinbad.io; Agency Claims Mixer Helped Obscure Funds Stolen From Harmony Bridge, Axie, and Atomic Wallet
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and OFAC have turned their attention towards digital currency mixing protocols. While Tornado Cash and Blender.io were previously targeted by both agencies, the latest subject of scrutiny is the mixer known as Sinbad.io. This service operates as a bitcoin (BTC) mixing platform, and according to OFAC, its primary function is to obscure transaction details, effectively concealing the flow of funds on the blockchain.
OFAC’s investigation has revealed that this mixer has been utilized by the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus Group. Furthermore, it has been implicated in laundering funds obtained from the Harmony Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity hacks. OFAC has now identified it as the “preferred mixing service” for the Lazarus Group, following the takedown of Blender.io. “Sinbad was used to launder a significant portion of the 0 million worth of virtual currency stolen on June 3, 2023, from customers of Atomic Wallet,” OFAC detailed.
“Mixing services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences,” said Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the Treasury. “The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners stand ready to deploy all tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illicit activities.”
This development comes in the wake of FinCEN’s recent update in late October, where it introduced new regulations requiring financial institutions to report transactions involving international cryptocurrency mixing services. At the time, Andrea Gacki, the director of FinCEN, and Adeyemo expressed their determination to combat illicit activities linked to digital currency mixing services.
Even before the proposed rules, the Treasury’s OFAC had been actively taking enforcement actions against mixers such as Blender and Tornado Cash. Simultaneously, OFAC had identified and flagged numerous sanctioned cryptocurrency addresses across various networks. The Treasury also warns that U.S. persons who “engage in certain transactions with the entity designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions.”
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Bitcoin Mining Pool F2pool Acknowledges OFAC Transaction Censorship; Backpedals After Community Backlash
F2Pool, a Bitcoin mining pool, has admitted to filtering transactions coming from Bitcoin addresses flagged by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). After the situation was discovered by 0xB10C, a Bitcoin developer, F2pool co-founder Chun Wang acknowledged that his pool was indeed applying this filter, announcing it would drop the censorship until there was consensus in the community on the issue.
F2pool Acknowledges Compliance With OFAC Sanctions
F2pool, one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools in the world, acknowledged having been filtering transactions coming from addresses flagged by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Chun Wang, a co-founder of the pool, admitted applying a compliance filter for these transactions after 0xB10C, a Bitcoin developer, published an article that examined different transactions to determine if they were intentionally filtered or if there were other explanations for this behavior.
The investigation, which examined six different transactions coming from OFAC-flagged addresses, pointed out that the four transactions excluded by F2pool were likely filtered. Nonetheless, the two remaining transactions could have been excluded due to other reasons. 0xB10C stated:
These four missing sanctioned transactions lead to the conclusion that F2pool is currently filtering transactions.
Wang Doubles Down, Backpedals Later
Wang answered a post made by 0xB10C in X, explaining the reasons that led F2pool to apply this OFAC transaction compliance filter. In a now-deleted post, Wang stated:
Why do you feel surprised when I refuse to confirm transactions for those criminals, dictators and terrorists? I have every right not to confirm any transactions from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, don’t I? Meanwhile, CZ is selling his soul for money. He deserves.
Furthermore, Wang pointed out that a “censorship resistance system” had to be designed to resist censorship from its protocol design instead of depending on each participant to decide not to censor. He explained that Bitcoin should learn about the mistakes on the internet in this regard.
This posture resulted in backlash from the community, with several X users explaining that the hashrate in F2pool was not owned by the administrator of the pool, accusing Wang of imposing his values on other people.
F2pool finally backpedaled (in another since-deleted post) on the issue, announcing it would stop filtering these transactions. Wang declared:
Will disable the tx filtering patch for now, until the community reaches a more comprehensive consensus on this topic.
What do you think about F2pool’s OFAC-compliant transaction filtering initiative? Tell us in the comments section below.
OFAC Sanctions Russian National Accused of Using Virtual Currency to Launder Money
According to the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova has been sanctioned as punishment for using virtual currency to launder money for designated Russian elites. OFAC said Zhdanova’s properties and interests in the United States are now either blocked or must be reported.
Russian Elites Seeking to Evade U.S. Sanctions
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s OFAC announced on Nov. 3 that it had sanctioned a Russian national it accuses of using virtual currency to launder money for Russian elites. According to OFAC, the action is in line with the Group of Seven Countries (G7)’s goal of going after sanction busters who have been helping sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
As per the statement, the Russian national, Ekaterina Zhdanova (Zhdanova), is accused of helping an unnamed client obfuscate the source of .3 million that was funneled into Western Europe. By taking such a step, Zhdanova helped the sanctioned Russian individual evade the sanctions, OFAC added.
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Commenting on Zhdanova’s addition to the list of sanctioned Russian nationals, Brian E. Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said:
We remain focused on safeguarding the U.S. and international financial system against those who seek to exploit this technology, among other illicit finance risks in the virtual assets ecosystem.
As a result of her designation, OFAC said Zhdanova’s properties and interests in the United States are either blocked or must be reported. According to OFAC, Zhdanova’s activities undermine the effectiveness of multilateral U.S. and international sanctions which are intended to “impose costs on Russia for its unprovoked war.”
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
BTC/USD Price Analysis: Price Stall at $4,300 as The US OFAC “sanction” Bitcoin Addresses
Latest Bitcoin News
In a laughable move, the United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued “sanctions” against two Bitcoin addresses–149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V—belong to two Iranians–Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, accused on assisting hackers launder their Bitcoin proceeds. The Bitcoins obtained from victims of a SamSam ransomware scheme were converted to Iranian Rial. With the ban, the OFAC said that users from the US who send any amount of BTCs to the said address will be liable to secondary sanctions. Furthermore, they are calling for individuals within compliance and in the crypto community to investigate and ban the said addresses.
On top of this, since Bitcoin is a push system, there is really no way to stop people from sending BTC to these blacklisted addresses.
At the end of the day, these efforts from regulators may ultimately be wild goose chases that lead nowhere as software like Wasabi and…
— Marty Bent (@MartyBent) November 29, 2018
Read: Report: Banks Are More Vulnerable to Terrorist Financing Than Crypto
However, while the US has been successful in setting embargoes against several economies—to their detriment, the move by the FAC to “ban” Bitcoin address is near impossible and even laughable. No government can censor a decentralized network because addresses are cryptic. Besides, one is actually his or her bank as long as they have control of their wallet’s private keys.
Related Reading: SEC Commissioner Not Ready to Approve Bitcoin ETF, Worries Fester
So, as it is, Ali and Mohammad can actually continue receiving any amount of BTC they wish and even the Iranian government cannot “sanction” the address unless they arrest them and use other means to extract associated private keys. They two can generate unlimited amount of BTC addresses. That is the reason why despite the so called FAC sanction, people are having a field day sending cash to those addressing and taking advantage of Bitcoin’s inherent strength—censorship resistance and communal control.
BTC/USD Price Analysis
Weekly Chart
At spot prices, BTC is down 0.12 percent on the weekly time frame—which is technically bullish following days of double-digit losses—but encouragingly up three percent in the last day at around ,300.
Regardless, bears are technically in charge and with prices 0 away from breaching and closing above the ,700 minor resistance and buy trigger line, conservative traders should hold off trading until after our trading conditions are met. Ideally that’s when we have a total recovery with BTC/USD printing above last week’s highs of ,700 preferably at the back of strong volumes.
Daily Chart
Back to the daily chart and BTC/USD is edging higher to the excitement of traders. Though we have a clear three bar reversal pattern—the Morning Star pattern, the past two pin bars—or dojis are still trending inside Nov 28 high volume bull bar.
But, from candlestick arrangement, short-term traders seem to have an upper hand and with every low, aggressive or risk off traders should be loading up with stops at ,900 and first targets at ,700 and later ,000 as laid out in our previous BTC/USD price analysis.
All Charts Courtesy of Trading View
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.
The post BTC/USD Price Analysis: Price Stall at ,300 as The US OFAC “sanction” Bitcoin Addresses appeared first on NewsBTC.
US Government Could Put Crypto Wallets on OFAC Sanctions List
The Treasury Department may start publishing wallet addresses along with the names of people and organizations with whom it forbids doing business.
CoinDesk