The United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) crypto tsar is cracking down on Decentralized Finance (DeFi) hackers and exploiters amid a four-year rise in illicit crypto activity. In a Financial Times report published on May 15, Eun Young Choi, director of the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), stated that the department is focusing on thefts and hacks involving DeFi, and “particularly chain bridges.” Choi said it was a “pretty significant issue” for the DOJ, given North Korean “state-sponsored hackers” have emerged as “key actors in this space.” North Korean hackers stole between an estimated $630 million to $1 billion of crypto assets in 2022, Cointelegraph reported in February. The DoJ announced Choi — a prosecutor with nearly a decade of experience in the agency — as the first director of the NCET in February 2022. At the time, a statement from the department explained that the NCET would serve as a “focal point” for the DOJ in tackling cryptocurrency, cybercrime, money laundering and forfeiture.
Full report : US Justice Department on the hunt for DeFi hackers and thieves.
