No KYC, No AML, No Service: Mixing Services Run Afoul Of US Treasury

tornado cash

The raison d’être of mixing services or tumblers have always been perplexing to law abiding citizens throughout the world. Their most well-known purpose is to undo one of the blockchain’s most important properties: transparency.

By taking stolen blockchain assets such as Ether or Bitcoin that may have been drained from unsuspecting users’ wallets, thieves can use a mixing service to turn cryptocurrency into essentially new, almost untraceable Ether or Bitcoin that may be used without fear of being tracked. Or put another way, KYC AML connections to the original assets have been erased.

Today, the US Treasury announced it has placed the most well-known mixer, Tornado Cash, as well as 44 associated crypto wallet addresses on a financial sanctions list known as OFAC’s SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) is part of the US Treasury and “administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals…”

This is the second mixing service to be sanctioned after Blender.io in May and is responsible for funneling funds from seven major hacks according to the Department. From the US Treasury’s press release:
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