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Circle freezes smart contract addresses linked to blacklisted Tornado Cash

Circle Internet Financial Ltd., the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, froze over 75,000 USDC in funds linked to 81 sanctioned addresses at the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash on Monday, according to data from crypto aggregator Dune Analytics. See related article: Bad actors in North Korea, Russia send record-high funds to crypto mixers Fast facts The […]

By Lachlan Keller

From the Forkast crypto archive

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 21: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen talks to reporters during a news conference in the Cash Room at the Treasury Department on April 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Yellen held the conference on the sidelines of the annual International Monetary Fund-World Bank Group spring meetings after the bank announced that it expects the global economy to grow at a rate of 3.2 percent in 2022, down from its previous estimate of 4.1 percent, due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Circle Internet Financial Ltd., the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, froze over 75,000 USDC in funds linked to 81 sanctioned addresses at the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash on Monday, according to data from crypto aggregator Dune Analytics.

See related article: Bad actors in North Korea, Russia send record-high funds to crypto mixers

Fast facts

  • The U.S. Treasury Department banned all U.S. persons and entities from using Tornado Cash on Monday, alleging the service facilitates money laundering.
  • Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added the mixer to its Specially Designated Nationals list, claiming it had laundered more than US$7 billion worth of crypto since 2019.
  • A cryptocurrency mixer is a service that allows users to feed crypto into a large pool and withdraw the same amount — minus a fee — to multiple wallets to obscure the sources of the original tokens.
  • It has been reported that Tornado Cash is used by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group, which was responsible for the US$620 million hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network.
  • Circle and Tether Limited Inc., the issuer behind leading stablecoin USDT, are able to freeze transfers of their stablecoins on the Ethereum smart contract level to and from Tornado Cash.
  • The amount sent to cryptocurrency mixers reached an all-time high of US$51.8 million in April 2022, according to a report by blockchain data analyst firm Chainalysis. 

See related article: Ronin hack proceeds seen headed to Tornado Cash