Cryptomixer 'Tornado Cash' on the blacklist
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has banned 'Tornado Cash'.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has banned "Tornado Cash." The North Korean hacking group Lazarus allegedly laundered hundreds of millions of US dollars through the crypto mixer.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury has placed the crypto mixer Tornado Cash on the sanctions list. Tornado Cash is a mixing service that anonymizes transactions. According to the agency, since 2019 there has been "more than $7 billion" laundered through the service.
A large portion of this was linked to the North Korean Lazarus group, the organization said. Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to implement effective controls to prevent it from regularly laundering money for malicious cybercriminals, and did so without basic measures to address its risks, says Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
OFAC will continue to "vigorously target crypto mixers that launder virtual currencies for criminals and those who support them." OFAC previously sanctioned the Blender.io crypto mixer. US citizens who continue to use the service could face criminal prosecution.
