Two Iran-based BTC addresses blacklisted by USA - don't trade with them

[JanEmil]

Don't trade with any BTC addresses that have touched
149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V
If you do all your funds can be seized by USA
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm556

[Kemarit]

The sheer amount of money and the transactions on those 2 addresses generated millions of dollars. Those hackers are really two step ahead, but the only mistakes is that they though Bitcoin was anonymous, but its obvious that the Feds was able to tracked them down and identify their bitcoin addresses and their names. I hope that this kind of actions will make those hackers think twice because of the legal repercussions of their actions.

[Harlot]

Read the article two times already but there were no mentions that the US government will seize your BTC if it has touched by one of those two addresses. And isn't it a little bit dumb if they did that? All they have to do is just send you .0000001 BTC in order for the US government to seize everything you have which is pretty unconstitutional. You should read the news more carefully next time in order to avoid confusion here in your post.

[squatter]

Read the article two times already but there were no mentions that the US government will seize your BTC if it has touched by one of those two addresses. And isn't it a little bit dumb if they did that? All they have to do is just send you .0000001 BTC in order for the US government to seize everything you have which is pretty unconstitutional. You should read the news more carefully next time in order to avoid confusion here in your post.

They don't explicitly state your funds will be seized in the press release, but Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyan are now subject to OFAC sanctions. If you're violating OFAC sanctions, you're risking harsh financial penalties. Associated prison sentences can be decades long, and that's on top of fines worth millions of dollars, depending on the offense. Iran is also covered by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which adds additional financial penalties.

A French bank just agreed to pay $54 million for violating sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Violating sanctions is no joke.

The press release also states:

As a result of today’s action, persons that engage in transactions with Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyan could be subject to secondary sanctions.

[magneto]

Don't trade with any BTC addresses that have touched
149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V
If you do all your funds can be seized by USA
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm556

I find it hard to believe that they will actually enforce this to the point that anyone who conducts any sort of payment from or to these addresses, or even receive coins that had been tainted with these addresses, will be prosecuted.

Due to the large amounts of transactions that have been dealt between these addresses, it's almost impossible to actually say for sure that coins you receive from a completely legitimate source will not contain traces that have passed through these addresses.

But of course, if you directly violate sanctions by dealing with them or whatnot, you're going to be in deep trouble, that's for sure. But seizing every single coin that comes into contact with them? It's impractical, unenforceable and unlikely tbh.

[gentlemand]

So what happens if the controllers of these addresses send a dribble to the Bitfinex or Binance cold wallets?

This is why I can't see how blacklisting will ever work. There's no way of stopping the pollution of 'virgin' addresses and anyone who is blacklisted will be motivated to spread their contagion far and wide until it's pointless.

Unless you deal with newly mined coins only everyone will have some stolen or druggist coins in their wallet even if they themselves play golf with freemasons. And these mythical people who pay more for new coins will probably be the first to get some dirty top ups.

[squatter]

So what happens if the controllers of these addresses send a dribble to the Bitfinex or Binance cold wallets?

Bitfinex or Binance -- if they want to comply with the sanctions -- would confiscate those tainted outputs and notify OFAC. They have instructions for this:

Once it has been determined that your institution is holding digital currency that is required to be blocked pursuant to OFAC’s regulations, you must ensure that access to that digital currency is denied to the blocked person and that your institution complies with OFAC regulations related to blocked assets.  Institutions may choose, for example, to block each digital currency wallet associated with the digital currency addresses that OFAC has identified as being associated with blocked persons, or opt to use its own wallet to consolidate wallets that contain the blocked digital currency (similar to an omnibus account) titled, for example, “Blocked SDN Digital Currency.”  Each of these methods is satisfactory, so long as there is an audit trail that will allow the digital currency to be unblocked only when the legal prohibition requiring the blocking of the digital currency ceases to apply.  Blocked digital currency must be reported to OFAC within 10 business days.

This is why I can't see how blacklisting will ever work. There's no way of stopping the pollution of 'virgin' addresses and anyone who is blacklisted will be motivated to spread their contagion far and wide until it's pointless.

Reading through that FAQ, it doesn't seem like this would taint an exchange's wallets. They just need to isolate the tainted outputs and stick them in a quarantined wallet.

[buwaytress]

So what happens if the controllers of these addresses send a dribble to the Bitfinex or Binance cold wallets?

This is why I can't see how blacklisting will ever work. There's no way of stopping the pollution of 'virgin' addresses and anyone who is blacklisted will be motivated to spread their contagion far and wide until it's pointless.

Unless you deal with newly mined coins only everyone will have some stolen or druggist coins in their wallet even if they themselves play golf with freemasons. And these mythical people who pay more for new coins will probably be the first to get some dirty top ups.

Exactly! Thought the US government, or any government for that matter, would have learnt by now that blacklisting addresses is as far as it gets. Sanctions were already known to be practically impossible to carry out (what, are the US going to get miners and nodes to censor them?).

Lots of musings already done on past blacklisting of coins. If those 2 Iranians wanted to test the extent of US sanctions, all they'd have to do now is just spend all their dust that they're receiving in the past few days to taint 100s of exchanges and mixers.

Not sure if plain stupid or irresponsible of Big Brother to take that route.

[gentlemand]

https://www.coindesk.com/get-ready-for-crypto-sanctions-enforcement

More info here. It basically looks like it's entirely on crypto companies to refuse to play with these addresses which is pretty much all they can do anyway. I wonder how a crypto economy with zero need for fiat, or companies, would be tackled.

[milewilda]

Don't trade with any BTC addresses that have touched
149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V
If you do all your funds can be seized by USA
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm556

I find it hard to believe that they will actually enforce this to the point that anyone who conducts any sort of payment from or to these addresses, or even receive coins that had been tainted with these addresses, will be prosecuted.

Due to the large amounts of transactions that have been dealt between these addresses, it's almost impossible to actually say for sure that coins you receive from a completely legitimate source will not contain traces that have passed through these addresses.

But of course, if you directly violate sanctions by dealing with them or whatnot, you're going to be in deep trouble, that's for sure. But seizing every single coin that comes into contact with them? It's impractical, unenforceable and unlikely tbh.

With having a No. Transactions   794 on that address i've been wondering on how they would impose such action?

[olubams]

The fact is every transaction in and out that address would be monitored to the extent that someone would make a mistake by either depositing into an exchange site that can be connected with the KYCs already in place or some direct sale with transfer to bank accounts via some credit card details. Either way, the best is to avoid those account all together but the real.problem is, some people won't get the opportunity to see the release and they end up falling victims of such issues without knowing anything concerning prior issues.

[marcbitcoins]

Don't trade with any BTC addresses that have touched
149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V
If you do all your funds can be seized by USA
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm556

It will be hard for the government to involve other address that will link to this 2 Bitcoin wallets as they already knew the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions but except if the connected wallets are involved in huge amount too like thousand to million of dollars then for sure the US goverment will investigate them too therefore i think there will be no problem with the small time traders like us but anyway thanks for this info.

[timerland]

https://www.coindesk.com/get-ready-for-crypto-sanctions-enforcement

More info here. It basically looks like it's entirely on crypto companies to refuse to play with these addresses which is pretty much all they can do anyway. I wonder how a crypto economy with zero need for fiat, or companies, would be tackled.

Also only affects US citizens and businesses. But if you're from other countries but deal with US based exchanges, you should still be careful.

Even though in theory, all companies are expected to comply to the OFAC, in reality it's still incredibly hard for them to even know what constitutes as a breach to this policy. It'll take tons of effort to screen out individual transactions. Especially when the coins are indirectly related to one of the sanctioned addresses, who is to say whether or not they are allowed to deal with them?

If a crypto economy like that ever emerges, then intervention from the government will be increasingly difficult, next to impossible. But I personally think that there will always be companies surrounding BTC which the government will regulate and intervene from.

[squatter]

https://www.coindesk.com/get-ready-for-crypto-sanctions-enforcement

More info here. It basically looks like it's entirely on crypto companies to refuse to play with these addresses which is pretty much all they can do anyway. I wonder how a crypto economy with zero need for fiat, or companies, would be tackled.

Also only affects US citizens and businesses. But if you're from other countries but deal with US based exchanges, you should still be careful.

It actually affects non-US entities too, if you take OFAC's threats seriously. In their press release, they threatened anyone transacting with these designated Iranian nationals with secondary sanctions. These sanctions apply to non-US persons for conduct that occurs entirely outside of US jurisdiction.

Let's say Binance receives coins connected to these addresses. If they don't comply with OFAC's primary sanctions and OFAC therefore decides to apply secondary sanctions to Binance, US customers will then be prohibited from doing business with Binance. That's a huge incentive for non-US businesses like Binance to comply.

[glenntalbot]

Those accounts belong to hackers or the U.S government simply banned them because they are from Iran??

"Today’s action marks the fourth round of U.S. sanctions targeting the Iranian regime this month.  Under this Administration, in less than two years, OFAC has sanctioned more than 900 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels, including for a range of activities related to Iran’s support for terrorism, ballistic missile program, weapons proliferation, cyberattacks, transnational criminal activity, censorship, and human rights abuses"

I don't believe this since sadly the trust from the U.S government is long gone...

[buwaytress]

It actually affects non-US entities too, if you take OFAC's threats seriously. In their press release, they threatened anyone transacting with these designated Iranian nationals with secondary sanctions. These sanctions apply to non-US persons for conduct that occurs entirely outside of US jurisdiction.

Let's say Binance receives coins connected to these addresses. If they don't comply with OFAC's primary sanctions and OFAC therefore decides to apply secondary sanctions to Binance, US customers will then be prohibited from doing business with Binance. That's a huge incentive for non-US businesses like Binance to comply.

That's exactly how it works, you're right. OFAC's been getting a lot of work done through secondary sanctions. This and the US pullout of Iran and reestablishment of sanctions are a main reason why the EU is thinking to hit back with accusations of unfair/unreasonable action. Shitload of lost money from the two or so years of EU and others (esp Japan) investing in business in Iran all down the drain. Even with the grace period given by the US, it's just so much lost and will be even costlier to resume should sanctions be lifted at some point in near future.

It won't be long before sanctions will lose their worth as an American tool to keep its rivals under their thumb. Their allies are getting real sick with it.