The US Department of Justice's cryptocurrency enforcement team is intensifying efforts to combat illicit activity in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector, with a particular focus on thefts and hacks involving chain bridges, as North Korean hackers have become prominent actors in this space, stealing millions to billions of dollars in crypto assets. The department aims to target both the companies involved in criminal activities and those that enable them, aiming to disrupt the trail of transactions and make it harder for criminals to profit from their actions, considering the increasing scale and scope of illicit use of digital assets in the past four years
In February, new outlets reported North Korean hackers had allegedly stolen approximately $630 million to $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets in 2022. The Department of Justice appointed Choi, an experienced prosecutor, as the inaugural director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) in the same month. The NCET was established as a central entity within the DOJ to address issues related to cryptocurrency, cybercrime, money laundering, and forfeiture.
Speaking at the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Assets Summit, Choi, the director of the DOJ's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, reiterated the department's focus on pursuing crypto firms involved in criminal activities or those that facilitate illicit transactions to impede the profitability of criminal actors. She highlighted that targeting the platform itself will have a multiplying effect in deterring the ease of profiting from crimes, as the scale and scope of digital assets being exploited in illicit ways have expanded substantially in the past four years.
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