The U.S. Treasury Department has identified the culprits behind a recent $625 million theft from a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) exchange: North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The jaw-dropping 173,600 ETH and 25 million USDC heist took place on March 23rd, when Ronin Bridge (a DeFi exchange connected to Axie Infinity) was accessed via hacked private keys and then drained. DeFi hacks have been frequent thus far in 2022, and this is the largest yet. That a state actor is behind the theft, and bypassing sanctions by pickpocketing the NFT play-to-earn economy speaks to the deep strangeness of international banking and finance right now. “There may be mandatory secondary sanctions requirements on persons who knowingly, directly or indirectly, engage in money laundering,” warns the Treasury Department, stating they are working to track the purloined funds.