Security News > 2022 > August > US treasury whips up sanctions for crypto mixer Tornado Cash

US treasury whips up sanctions for crypto mixer Tornado Cash
2022-08-08 23:00

The US Treasury Department is levying sanctions against Tornado Cash, a notorious cryptocurrency mixer that it says has been used by threat groups like ransomware gang Lazarus to launder stolen digital assets.

According to the government agency, Tornado Cash has been used to launder more than $455 million stolen by the North Korean-supported Lazarus Group, including more than $96 million in Wrapped Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets from blockchain startup Harmony's Horizon Bridge service in June.

Most recently, Tornado Cash allegedly laundered about $7.8 million of $200 million in tokens stolen from cryptocurrency bridge Nomad earlier this month, according to Treasury.

Under the sanctions, US citizens or anyone in the United States can no longer do business with Tornado Cash unless given specific approval by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The sanctions against Tornado Cash come three months after similar restrictions were put on Blender, another crypto mixer used by Lazarus and others to launder ill-gotten crypto gains.

The Blender sanctions were the first of its kind levied against a crypto mixer.


News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/treasury_sanctions_tornado_cash_korea/