Billions of dollars sent to crypto-mixer - despite ban

In August 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a ban against Tornado Cash. However, the crypto-mixer is still widely used.

Despite ongoing U.S. sanctions, lawsuits and bans, crypto-mixer Tornado Cash is seeing an increase in deposit volume. According to data from Flipside Crypto, users sent about $1.9 billion to Tornado Cash in the first half of 2024. This is a 50 percent increase over the total volume in 2023.

In August 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against the protocol. The North Korean hacker group Lazarus allegedly laundered about $455 million through the crypto-mixer.

Charges were subsequently filed against the co-founder, Alexey Pertsev. Pertsev was arrested in Amsterdam in August 2022 and remains in jail. Within the crypto community, both the arrest and the ban were controversially discussed.