US Treasury Warned The Crypto Market

The US Treasury warned the crypto market. The ministry pointed to ransomware attacks. Here are the details..

In the statement made by the Treasury, it was stated that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has released the Sanctions Compliance Manual for the Virtual Currency Industry and the new report of the Financial Crimes Investigation Network (FinCEN) on ransomware trends. Noting that the number of ransomware payments paid via virtual currency has increased with the increase in ransomware attacks in recent years, it was stated that the increasing prevalence of virtual currency as a payment method brings greater exposure to sanctions risks. The statement pointed out that the virtual currency industry is playing an increasingly critical role in preventing sanctioned individuals from using virtual currencies. The average monthly ransomware transaction amount reported this year is $102.3 million, while the most common types of ransomware reported are REvil/Sodinokibi, Conti, DarkSide, Avaddon, and Phobos. While it was recorded that a total of 590 million dollars of suspicious ransomware payments were made in the first six months of this year, it was noticed that this amount was more than the total ransomware payments of 416 million dollars reported throughout 2020.