Crypto privacy protocol Railgun's tool to filter out malicious actors blocked Inferno Drainer's attempt to launder stolen money. On July 9, an attempt to launder 174 Ether (ETH)—worth $533,000 at current prices—was foiled by Railgun.

Railgun contributor Alan Scott Jr noted that Inferno's attempt to use the Ethereum-based privacy protocol was rejected by Railgun's automated Private Proof of Innocence (Private POI) system. "This is by design for the attacker to be able to just send the tokens back to the original custodial wallet. This is part of Private POI, this technology is brand new, but it's a great example of it working," Scott said.

Railgun was founded in January 2021 and uses zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography to keep users private when using decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum or other supported chains. Railgun's Private POI system was launched in January 2023 by researchers and participants of the protocol.

Inferno Drainer has stolen over $180 million in crypto from over 189,000 victims since its founding in August 2023.

In April this year, Railgun took issue with independent crypto journalist Colin Wu, who claimed that the protocol was being used by North Korean Lazarus Group.

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