Grayscale's Owner Sees Spike in Fee Income After Crypto Mixer Used for Money Laundering by North Korean Hackers
According to an investigation by Forbes, Grayscale's owner Barry Silbert saw an increase in fee income after Railgun, a crypto mixer allegedly used by North Korean-hacker group Lazarus to launder stolen crypto, was utilized in 2023. Digital Currency Group (DCG), which owns Grayscale, is believed to have benefited from the laundering through Railgun, receiving $436,906 in fees from June 2023 to the present. DCG invested $10 million in Railgun in 2022 and received 5 million RAIL tokens in return, but the value of their investment has decreased by over 60%. There are concerns about DCG's involvement in Railgun's alleged North Korean-laundering of $60 million, but DCG claimed rewards from the incident in January 2023. This highlights the challenges of balancing privacy tools with the need to prevent bad actors from using DeFi platforms. The IRS Criminal Investigation unit has emphasized the need for DeFi platforms to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and Railgun is partnering with Chainway Labs to improve its compliance with the Proof of Innocence solution. However, experts warn that a permission-less system cannot be fully compliant.
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