Vitalik Buterin, Justin Sun, Binance, FTX Join 440 Addresses Receiving 0.1 Ethereum From Sanctioned Tornado Cash

Binance and FTX Join the 440 Addresses That Received 0.1 ETH From Sanctioned Tornado Cash.

Leading blockchain security company PeckShield revealed that 440 addresses belonging to top crypto companies and prominent individuals like Binance, FTX, and Justin Sun received 0. 1 Ethereum (ETH) from an anonymous donor through the recently sanctioned crypto mixer, Tornado Cash. 

#PeckShieldAlert ~440 addresses received 0.1 $ETH from https://t.co/LLczi0PnFJ: 0.1 ETH contract which was added to the OFAC sanction list, including Vb 3, Justin Sun, sifu.eth, Beeple, Brian Armstrong, Ukraine Crypto Donation and Centralized exchanges e.g. Binance, FTX… pic.twitter.com/5uziOvHRCJ

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 10, 2022

Aside from Binance and FTX, the security company disclosed that the affected wallets belong to Beeple, the Mike Winkelmann non-fungible token (NFT) collection, Brian Armstrong, and a Ukrainian Non-governmental organization that receives crypto donations to fund the ongoing crisis in the country. 

The actions of this mystery crypto trader have ultimately impacted the 440 addresses of these entities into potential regulatory trouble as the wallets have directly interacted with the contract address belonging to the sanctioned crypto tumbler. 

U.S.Treasury’s Office Sanctions Tornado Cash 

Earlier this week, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado for its involvement in illicit activities. 

The popular Ethereum crypto mixer received a blow on Monday for assisting cybercriminals in laundering approximately $7 billion of virtual assets since its launch in 2019. 

The U.S. Treasury OFAC further disclosed that Tornado Cash aided the infamous North Korean hacker group dubbed Lazarus and successfully laundered more than $455 million in stolen digital assets.  

The OFAC noted that in June, hackers used the tumble to launder over $96 million stolen from the Harmony Bridge attack and $7.8 million from the August Nomad exploit.

In addition to helping support illegal activities, the U.S. Treasury pointed out that Tornado Cash failed to implement basic security measures like Anti Money Laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) policies designed to protect investors. 

 Alchemy, Infura, and Circle, Comply With Sanctions

Shortly after Tornado Cash was sanctioned for violations of financial security policies and money laundering, Infura, an application programming interface provider, and Alchemy, a node infrastructure provider, blocked RPC requests to the company. 

Additionally, Circle, a leading cryptocurrency stablecoin issuer, has complied with U.S. sanctions and banned USDC addresses associated with the mixer. The company reportedly seized 75,000 USDC linked to the sanctioned Tornado Cash address.