Tornado Cash Bags Huge Fund Inflow Despite US Sanction

The sanctions from the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) may not have done much in disrupting the operation of the popular cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. 

Bad Actors Continue to Use Tornado Cash 

Reports have shown that the banned platform saw a shocking surge in the volume of transactions that were processed in the first half of this year. Data from Flipside Crypto says Tornado Cash received up to $1.9 billion in deposits in only six months. Compared to the figure recorded throughout last year, the current value corresponds with a 50% increase.

This suggests that many hackers and other bad actors may still be leveraging the crypto mixing services of the platform to hide the origin and flow of their loot. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence claimed that the hacker behind the $100 million Poloniex exchange exploit transferred $76 million to the mixer since May.

Also, perpetrators of HECO Bridge and Orbit Chain exploits allegedly transferred $166 million and $48 million in separate transactions to the mixer in the first half of 2024. Blockchain security analysts have even discovered a connection between the Tornado Cash mixer and the recent WazirX exploit.

Legal Battle of Tornado Cash’s Developers 

For now, the founding team of the crypto mixer are still caught in a legal battle with U.S. authorities over the role they played in money laundering. Roman Semenov, the embattled co-founder of the mixer, had earlier filed a Motion to Dismiss (MTD) the suit, citing that he designed the code for Tornado Cash and could not control how it is used. 

However, Attorney Damian Williams noted that Semenov hosted the platform to keep it online and ensured its anonymity. To this end, the charges against Tornado Cash and its executives remained un-amended with several count charges. The trial of Roman Storm, the other co-founder of Tornado Cash, has been rescheduled for December. 

On the other hand, Alex Pertsev, one of the developers behind Tornado Cash, was sentenced to more than five years behind bars.

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