The U.S. Treasury Department has banned an altcoin project from using cryptocurrencies, making it difficult to track. The sanction comes after the $625 million Ronin hack and numerous money laundering incidents.
Sanction decision from the US Treasury Department to this altcoin project
Lazarus Outfit, a North Korean hacker group linked to the $625 million hack of Ronin Network in March, is hiding transfer transactions via Tornado Cash, according to the US Treasury Department. According to reports, tens of millions of dollars stolen from Ronin so far have gone through Tornado Cash. The chart below shows the transactions made in Tornado Cash in monthly timeframes.
According to the data, the average amount of ETH deposited in Tornado Cash exceeded 220,000 in May and June 2022. According to CoinGecko data, that amount was between $220 billion and $660 billion at that time.
Data shows that funds from the Ronin hack accounted for 18% of the total amount of ETH that went through Tornado Cash in recent months.
Sanction applications
According to the statements on the website of the US Treasury Department, no US citizen will be able to interact with Tornado Cash anymore.
Tornado Cash (TORN) price jumps 15% after decision
Interestingly, the TORN price gained in double digits after the official announcement. As the chart below shows, this uptrend was short-lived. TORN price declined again from its intraday high of $31.56. It is currently trading in the red 2.9% over the last 24 hours.
