CLARITY Act Targets North Korea's Lazarus Group with New Freeze Tools

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has highlighted the importance of the CLARITY Act in closing illicit-finance gaps exploited by groups like North Korea's Lazarus Group. The group, responsible for a significant portion of global crypto hacking losses, stole approximately two-thirds of the $972 million lost in the first half of 2026.

According to Lummis, the CLARITY Act closes these gaps by providing the U.S. Treasury Department and crypto exchanges with new authority to freeze suspicious transactions before they move overseas. This includes Section 303, which enables new crypto sanctions on Iran, and Section 305, which allows exchange operators and stablecoin issuers to place a 30-day hold on any transaction suspected of illicit activity.

Lummis has paired these sections with Section 201, which extends Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) anti-money laundering (AML) requirements to digital asset firms for the first time. This is part of over 16 illicit-finance safeguards built into the bill.