The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) have recently announced the first director of their and National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). According to the director of the DOJ's NCET, Eun Young Choi, the team is primarily focusing their efforts on hacker and thief activities happening within the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem, and particularly on “chain bridges”. It has become a “pretty significant issue” given the rise of North Korean “state-sponsored hackers” taking part of this field.

In just the past four years, the amount of digital assets being used for criminal activities has drastically increased, making the mission of the NCET even more urgent. The team, not only, is looking to crack down on digital currency frauds and thefts, but they want to go after the source itself- crypto firms are targets if they are knowingly participating in illegal activities and transactions, or ignoring the path of these transactions. Keeping the platforms in check will have a “multiplier effect” in order to stop criminals from walking away with their illegal revenue.

The problem of DeFi theft and malicious activity, in general, have been highlighted many times in the past. In February 2022, North Korean hackers allegedly stole more than a billion US dollars in crypto assets. A little over a year later, in March 2023, DeFi platform Euler Finance experienced their biggest hack since the start of the year, losing over $196 million in assets. And that same year in November, Mango Markets, a DeFi trading platform, was exploited for over $116 million.

It is clear that the DOJ’s new focus on Decentralized Finance criminal activity is much needed to control the snowballing theft and malicious activity. The department is making strides to bring a sense of security to the digital asset world and to put a stop to the criminal actives that Discontented Finance makes so easy to partake in.



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