U.S. Bans Crypto Mixing Service Tornado Cash

A 29-year-old man was detained in Amsterdam on Friday, per the Dutch tax authorities investigative department, who suspects him of working as a developer for Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing business that the US had earlier in the week sanctioned. 

The Dutch agency’s action further demonstrates the increasing interest that governments are showing in so-called crypto mixers. Another cryptocurrency mixing service, Blender, received approval from the Office of Foreign Asset Control earlier this year. 

Sanctions against the service were imposed by the US Treasury Department on Monday. According to reports, North Korean state hackers used Tornado Cash to hide billions of dollars.

The Block identified the Tornado Cash engineer as Alexey Pertsev despite FIOD concealing his name. Tornado Cash, as per FIOD, “has been utilized to mask large-scale criminal money flows, particularly from data thefts of cryptocurrencies so-called crypto hacks and scams,” the organization claimed.

The platform works by pooling and scrambling different digital assets from thousands of addresses, including money that might have been obtained illegally as well as money that might have been obtained legally, to hide the trail back to the asset’s original source, giving criminals a chance to hide the source of the stolen money.  

After the U.S. sanction, a variety of companies have banned or deleted accounts connected to Tornado

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This article has been indexed from CySecurity News – Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents

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