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Blender.io, a North Korean-linked crypto mixing service that obfuscates the origin and destination of bitcoin transactions, was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday, and bitcoin and ether addresses were added to its blacklist.

OFAC is attempting to prevent Blender.io, ether (ETH), and bitcoin (BTC) addresses from being used to access the global banking system. The most recent update on Friday included 46 bitcoin addresses and 12 ether addresses. The bitcoin addresses were all linked to Blender, while the ether addresses were linked to the Lazarus hacking group from North Korea. OFAC has previously sanctioned many ether addresses, as well as Lazarus, for allegedly stealing over $600 million in cryptocurrency from Axie Infinity's home-brewed sidechain, Ronin, in the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.

The Treasury Department noted in a press statement that Blender is allegedly involved in ransomware assaults as well as other hacks, including the infamous Ronin hack in March, in which Lazarus Group allegedly compromised Axie's sidechain. Several ether addresses associated to the hack have already been sanctioned by OFAC.

OFAC has included a crypto mixing service on its sanctions list for the first time.

"Today, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned virtual currency mixer Blender.io (Blender), which is used by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to support its malicious cyber activities and money-laundering of stolen virtual currency," OFAC said in a press release.

Blender was used to launder around $20.5 million in revenues from the Ronin assault, according to the report. While Blender was just sanctioned by OFAC on Friday, other mixing services such as Tornado Cash have also been mentioned in chain analysis following the stolen monies. Last month, Tornado Cash was used to launder over 21,000 ETH (worth roughly $56 million at press time) stolen from the Ronin network.

"While the stated objective is to increase anonymity, criminal actors frequently employ mixers like Blender. Since its inception in 2017, Blender has assisted in the movement of over $500 million in Bitcoin. Blender was utilized in the laundering of approximately $20.5 million in criminal proceeds from the DPRK's Axie Infinity robbery "Treasury issued a statement on Friday.

The Treasury Department will continue to crack down on "virtual currency mixers that aid criminals," according to the statement.