Privacy tools have always been heralded as a key to financial freedom in the crypto industry. In the Ethereum ecosystem, discussions surrounding the subject matter have revolved mostly around privacy-preserving transfers of ETH and mainstream ERC20 tokens. In a bid to improve the state of privacy on the network, its co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed...Read More
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) tryst with the crypto industry dates back to 2018 when it designated two Iran-based individuals of malicious cyber activity. There has been no looking back since. More recently, the bombshell announcement that the US Treasury Department banned American citizens from using Tornado Cash, has had industry leaders abuzz....Read More
Alexey Pertsev – developer of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash – will reportedly remain in jail until late February 2023. The Dutch Crime Agency (FIOD) arrested the man in August this year after the US Treasury Department previously sanctioned Tornado Cash for enabling money-laundering procedures. According to a recent CoinDesk coverage, Pertsev will stay in...Read More
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) assigned popular crypto tumbler Tornado Cash as an entity on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) sanction list last month which triggered an outcry from privacy and free speech advocates. Subsequently, Microsoft-owned GitHub removed its source code as well as terminated the user accounts of three individuals who...Read More
On September 13, the U.S. Treasury Department published a guide with a series of steps for U.S. citizens to follow in order to withdraw their funds from Tornado Cash. Tornado Cash was a mixing service shut down on August 8 by the U.S. Treasury Department. This happened after investigations showed that the platform was used...Read More
America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is supporting a legal challenge against the U.S. Treasury Department following its sanctions against the privacy protocol Tornado Cash. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include 6 individuals who have personally used the mixer, some of which include Coinbase employees. Defending Tornado’s Use Cases As reported by CNBC, Coinbase’s senior security risk analyst said...Read More
Tornado Cash was added to the US sanctions list by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on August 8. Two days later, Alexey Pertsev, a coder tied to the crypto mixing service, was arrested by Dutch authorities. The blacklisting and the subsequent events sparked an outcry from privacy proponents, with many protesting and engaging...Read More
Alexey Pertsev, developer of the U.S.-sanctioned Ethereum-based cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, will have to spend a minimum of 90 days in jail, although he is yet to be charged with a crime. The arrest of the Tornado Cash developer has sparked outrage and concerns from the crypto community, which believes that such action could have...Read More
Tether – the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin – is yet to freeze addresses associated with the privacy protocol Tornado Cash. That means USDT holders can still technically use the smart contract to obfuscate their funds. However, it remains unclear whether Tether’s permissiveness amounts to a violation of U.S. sanctions. Tether and Tornado...Read More
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s placement of popular crypto tumbler Tornado Cash as an entity on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) sanction list has raised many eyebrows. The subsequent removal of its source code from the Microsoft-owned GitHub, which also shut down the user accounts of three individuals who contributed code to...Read More
Tornado.Cash announced the launch of a new governance proposal wherein users will gain governance rights through the TORN Token. The Torn token is an ERC-20 compatible token with a fixed supply that governs Tornado.Cash. TORN holders can make proposals and vote to change the protocol via governance. However, the protocol stated that TORN is not...Read More
