Tornado Cash Is Sanctioned by the US, Crypto Platforms React

On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

The mixing service has reportedly been used by the North Korea-based Lazarus Group to attack Ethereum bridges which became one of the main reasons for the ban. According to estimates, Tornado Cash has laundered over $7.6 billion worth of digital assets since 2019, $1.54 billion of which has allegedly been used for hacks, theft, and fraud activities.

The US OFAC has also sanctioned 38 Ethereum addresses with ETH and USDC linked to Tornado Cash. Since then, crypto platforms such as dYdX have followed suit and decided to also block accounts connected to the mixer. As a consequence of the news, in the last few days Tornado Cash users have withdrawn $62 million from the platform which is around 15% of the company’s remaining funds.