US Justice Department on the hunt for DeFi hackers and thieves: Report

While the DOJ highlighted that “blending and toppling services” would be a particular focus for the agency, it did not specifically mention anything in regard to DeFi platforms at the time.Choi, who also just recently spoke at the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Assets Summit, declared that the DOJ is after crypto firms that either devote the criminal activity or turn a blind eye to “obscure the trail of deals.” She noted:” The DoJ is targeting companies that devote criminal offenses themselves or enable them to take place, such as allowing money laundering.” She described that by going after the source, the platform itself, it will have a “multiplier result” in terms of stopping “criminal stars to quickly benefit from their crimes.” Choi even more emphasized the “scale and the scope of digital assets being utilized in a range of illegal ways” has actually grown substantially over the last four years.Related: DeFi sees its greatest hack in 2023 as Euler loses $197M: Finance RedefinedDeFi platforms have experienced a string of attacks in current times.Decentralized Finance Total Value Locked (TVL). Source: DappRadarThe biggest DeFi hack so far this year was reported on March 13, with Euler Finance facing a flash loan attack with over $196 million in DAI, USDC, staked Ether (StETH) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) stolen.Meanwhile, in November 2022 DeFi trading platform Mango Markets saw an exploiter apparently take advantage of their low liquidity to “drain funds.” Essentially the hacker transferred $5 million of his own cash into the platform to increase the rate of MNGO from $0.03 to $0.91 to increase their MNGO holdings to $423 million.From there, the exploiter was able to obtain a loan for $116 million using several tokens on the platform, including Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL) and Serum (SRM), as a result, the loan removed the entire liquidity of Mango Markets.Magazine: DeFi abandons Ponzi farms for genuine yield

” Choi said it was a “pretty considerable problem” for the DOJ given North Korean “state-sponsored hackers” have emerged as “essential stars in this space. At the time, a declaration from the department described that the NCET will serve as a “focal point” for the DoJ in tackling cryptocurrency, cybercrime, money laundering, and forfeiture.Justice Department Announces First Director of National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Teamhttps:// t.co/ PvJ6iRDQ8P– Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) February 17, 2022.