US Treasury sanctions Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash

US Treasury Department bans the well-known cryptocurrency mixer service, Tornado Cash to prevent further criminal activities within the United States. The platform has been widely used by hackers and politicians to launder money without being traced on the blockchain .

Tornado Cash was initially created to hide transactions in the crypto world but the criminals started using it for malicious purposes such as crypto money laundering and transferring stolen assets.

The Lazarus Group , allegedly a DPRK state-sponsored hacking group also used the same services to transfer the stolen $455 million. Similarly, many politicians used it to launder money in virtual currency to other platforms without being traced.

According to the official press release, the department amended the same action it took against Blender.io, another crypto mixing service platform to ban Tornado Cash from the country.; “Today, Treasury is sanctioning Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer that launders the proceeds of cybercrimes, including those committed against victims in the United States,” said Brian E. Nelson.

“Despite public assurances otherwise, Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis and without basic measures to address its risks,” he added.

However, the crypto community seems to disagree with this decision. Many people like Jeff Coleman and Vitalik Buterin believe that the ban on Tornado Cash might sabotage the privacy of transactions between two parties on a blockchain.