SlowMist report claims that around 75% of laundered ETH moves to Tornado Cash

With quickly increasing events across Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain and an upward trend, Tornado Cash has emerged as a popular platform for money laundering. After passing through the mixer, a large portion of the unlawful funds has lost track.

74.6% of stolen assets, or roughly 300,160 ETH, on the Ethereum network, were transferred to the contentious cryptocurrency tumbler during the first half of 2022, according to new research by blockchain security platform SlowMist.

According to the 2022’s Blockchain Security and Anti-money laundering Analysis Report by SlowMist:

“Tornado Cash accounts for the bulk of the initial funding for these security attacks. There have also been reports of withdrawals from exchanges, trading platforms, and personal wallets to fund these security incidents.”

A key point of disagreement for regulators all over the world has been cryptocurrency mixers. The Ethereum-based crypto mixer has recently come under fire for its affiliation with the Lazarus hacker gang, which is sponsored by the North Korean government.

The recent sanctions and community’s support for Tornado Cash

Data indicate that Tornado Cash has been used to wash more than $7 billion worth of digital assets since its launch in 2019. After it came under criticism earlier this month for allowing billions of dollars worth of funds to be laundered using its platform, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) promptly banned US individuals and companies from using Tornado.

As we previously reported in mid-August, the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) detained a 29-year-old man who is allegedly connected to the Tornado Cash.

The non-profit think tank on crypto policy Coin Centre is ready to drag the matter to the court. It argues that OFAC might have gone beyond its statutory authority and that its major defense is that banning the entire platform is not appropriate.

Additionally, according to Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, removing Tornado Cash’s code repositories from Github was unreasonable because there are individuals who value their privacy and who follow the law.