US sanctions network converting North Korean IT worker crypto pay into usable funds
- —Sanctions target 10 individuals and one entity, including two Russian citizens
- —Chainalysis traced stablecoin payments to a developer roughly every two weeks in late 2022 and early 2023
- —Funds were converted to ETH and sent to addresses linked to sanctioned exchange Garantex
- —The UN estimates the North Korean IT worker scheme generates $250–600 million a year
Why it matters: The action targets a key conversion channel for North Korean crypto revenue, raising compliance risk for exchanges and intermediaries handling such flows.
Source: DiarioBitcoin
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