Cybersecurity
Treasury Sanctions Crypto Exchange for Facilitating Ransomware
- Chatex said to have ties to crypto firm sanctioned months ago
- Sanctioned company trying to raise money in ICO: researchers
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C., U.S.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
As part of a sweeping crackdown on ransomware on Monday, the Biden administration sanctioned a virtual cryptocurrency exchange called Chatex, accusing it of facilitating financial transactions for hackers.
An analysis of Chatex’s known transactions indicates that more than half are “directly traced to illicit or high-risk activities such as darknet markets, high-risk exchanges and ransomware,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department statement.