According to blockchain intelligence entity Arkham reports, a sum totaling $77.35 million has traversed Tornado Cash’s Ethereum mainnet contracts within the preceding month.
Despite enduring sanctions imposed by the United States Treasury Department in August 2022, Tornado Cash remains the preeminent cryptocurrency mixer operative within the Ethereum network.
The U.S. regulatory authorities contended that Tornado Cash served as a conduit for North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group to cleanse millions of cryptocurrency dollars.
The developers of Tornado Cash, namely Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, currently confront accusations involving money laundering and violations of sanctions.
Tornado Cash Experiences a Sharp Decline in Assets Post-Sanctions Arkham reports disclosed that Tornado Cash’s assets have undergone a precipitous decline of more than 60%, accompanied by a substantial reduction in transfer volume following its sanctioning by U.S. regulators last August.
Nonetheless, both the total value locked (TVL) and transfer volume exhibited a subsequent recuperation. As of the present, Tornado’s TVL stands at $118.3K ETH, equivalent to $187.9 million.
Tornado Cash’s Multinetwork Operations and Persistent Exploitation Challenges
Tornado Cash operates across seven distinct blockchain networks and conceals the movement of ten different cryptocurrencies.
The foremost mixed asset within this platform comprises native ETH on the Ethereum Mainnet. In its zenith during July 2021, Tornado Cash held an excess of $700 million worth of ETH within its pool contracts.
Persistent Exploitation of Tornado Cash for Money Laundering by Hackers The Lazarus Group, affiliated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has persistently employed Tornado Cash for the purpose of legitimizing ill-gotten gains, originally purloined from Sky Mavis’s Ronin Bridge.
Furthermore, Hackers resort to Tornado Cash as a means to legitimize the origin of their funds, thereby severing any connections to pilfered wallets or illicit cryptocurrency activities. This has made it a prime target for authorities on a global scale.
As reported by Arkham reportss, nearly all of the high-value multi-million dollar cryptocurrency heists have harnessed Tornado Cash to launder their proceeds.
Previously, a lawsuit backed by Coinbase against the United States Treasury Department aimed to overturn the ban on this cryptocurrency mixer, asserting that it infringes upon free speech, given Tornado Cash’s status as open-source software.
However, the court ultimately ruled in favor of the United States Department of the Treasury.
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