USDC issuer Circle has blacklisted Tornado Cash-linked wallet addresses following the US Treasury Department’s decision.
According to data from Ethereum blockchain travelers, Tornado Cash wallets have been blacklisted and at least 75,000 USDC transactions have been frozen. These addresses include Tornado Cash’s USDC pool. With this move by Circle, USDC fund holders deposited in Tornado Cash may not be able to access their funds.
Circle did not share details about the blacklist but confirmed that it is complying with the regulator’s measures regarding Tornado Cash.
Circle stated that they discussed the sanctions and blocked addresses associated with the platform, with OFAC’s sanction on Tornado Cash.
Sanctions from the US Treasury Department
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced that it has sanctioned Tornado Cash for laundering money by the North Korea-controlled Lazarus Group using Tornado Cash. The hacker group Lazarus has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in funds by attacking many protocols such as Ronin and Harmony.
With this move by Circle, investors will not be able to access USDC funds in Tornado Cash.
Known as a crypto scrambling protocol, Tornado Cash is often recognized as a platform that cybercriminals use to launder money. This causes the platform to be frequently associated with crime.
This is not the first time in the crypto industry. A consortium previously formed by Circle and Coinbase had frozen $100,000 USDC from a wallet address in July 2020. Circle stated in its statement at that time that the request came from law enforcement.
Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, has similarly frozen 653 wallet addresses on the Ethereum blockchain over the past few years.
Tornado Cash’s website appears to be currently down. After OFAC’s sanction announcement, Github page is also not accessible.
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