LONDON (Bywire News) - On Monday it was reported that The United States had imposed sanctions on crypto mixer Tornado Cash, accusing them of assisting hackers including those from North Korea, to launder proceeds from Cybercrime.
A senior Treasury Department official claimed that Tornado Cash has reportedly laundered over $ 7 billion worth of virtual currency.
A well-known North Korean government-backed hacking group, which has been the cause of numerous data breaches called The Lazarus Group, is known for having politically or financially motivated influence behind their attacks. The group, which has also been sanctioned, is said to have laundered $455 million through Tornado Cash.
The United States and South Korea claim that North Korea has mobilised thousands of hackers to steal funds including crypto in order to finance their weapons programs. North Korea denies the allegations.
Tornado Cash was used to launder $100 million following the June Harmony heist. Last week, it was used to assist the Nomad theft, the Treasury said. Tornado Cash has pledged to make changes, but according to Treasury activities, the criminal activity has continued.
In May, the US Treasury targeted Blender, a software tool that pools and scrams crypto from thousands of addresses. It was the first time they had imposed sanctions on a crypto mixer. They have said they will continue to investigate the illicit use of mixers to assist hacks.
Many crypto platforms have been plagued by hacks and Tornado Cash refused to comment.
(Writing by Samba Jallow, editing by Klaudia Fior and Tom Cropper)