SlowMist: 75% of criminal funds on the Ethereum network were laundered through Tornado Cash

The crypto mixer also accounts for the largest part of the initial funding of money laundering incidents on the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks

18.08.2022 - 06:45

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What’s new? According to a report by blockchain security firm SlowMist, a total of 74,7% of the total amount of criminal funds on the Ethereum network, 300 160 ETH (about $554 million at the Binance rate as of August 18), were laundered through the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer. Of the remaining funds, about 24% (95 570 ETH) are still in hackers’ wallets, while 1,5% (6 250 ETH) were sent to exchanges. In addition, the research also found that Tornado Cash accounted for the largest part of the initial funding of money laundering incidents on the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks.

SlowMist’s report

Tornado Cash situation. On April 17, hackers withdrew $80 million from the Beanstalk Farms DeFi protocol on the Ethereum network, then funneled nearly the entire amount to Tornado Cash. On June 24, hackers stole $100 million from Horizon cross-chain in the Ethereum ecosystem, then funneled them into the mixer as well. Analysts at Elliptic said that the Lazarus group from the DPRK may have been behind the hack.

On August 8, the US authorities imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, noting that more than $7 billion had been laundered through the service since its inception. Officials also emphasized that it was used by hackers from Lazarus.

After that, the service faced a sharp decline in deposits. The dYdX exchange, the Oasis.appDeFi platform and the Aave DeFi protocol started blocking users whose addresses are linked to Tornado Cash.

For more details on what awaits DeFi projects after the sanctions against Tornado Cash, see GetBlock Magazine’s article.

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