OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash and adds related crypto addresses to the SDN sanction list

On Monday, OFAC added Tornado Cash mixing service, related ETH, and USDC addresses to its SDN sanction list.

What is a crypto mixer?

A cryptocurrency mixing service is a decentralized service running on blockchains. It allows users to transact cryptocurrencies with enhanced privacy. Indeed, mixing services are obfuscating the trail of transactions by mixing crypto funds together, making it impossible to follow the funds’ trail.

There are many mixing services available to enhance crypto transaction privacy. Tornado Cash is one of the most well-known and most used cryptocurrency mixing services.

Tornado Cash added to OFAC‘s sanction list

Yesterday, OFAC added several ETH and USDC address to the SDN sanction list and designated Tornado (see the complete list at the end of the post). In addition, the sanction list also displays the ETH address from Tornado Cash Gitcoin Grant. According to OFAC’s press release, Tornado Cash facilitated the laundering of over $7 billion in cryptocurrencies since 2019.

According to the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the Treasury will continue acting against mixers involved in laundering illicit cryptocurrencies.

This designation comes after the designation of Blender.io in May, the first crypto mixing service designated by OFAC.

Tornado Cash’s involvement in crypto hacks

Tornado Cash has been one of the favored tools used by hackers to launder funds from illicit proceeds. We have seen that Tornado Cash received funds related to several large crypto hacks.

Cybercrime group Lazarus, which is sponsored by North Korea, has already used the Tornado Cash mixer on several occasions. For example, around $455 million in cryptocurrencies related to the Ronin Bridge hack from March 2022 eventually reached the platform.

Links between Ronin hack and Tornado Cash on Scorechain Investigation Tool

OFAC designated the Lazarus group back in 2019 and added related cryptocurrency addresses in April 2022 following the Ronin Bridge hack. The hack led OFAC to designate the Lazarus group and some related cryptocurrency addresses.

Read more: Anatomy of a Crypto Hack – 4 big hacks in review

DOWNLOAD

Tornado Cash has also been involved in laundering illicit proceeds related to other hacks and exploits, including the recent Nomad, Audius, Harmony Bridge, and Beanstalk hacks.

Sanctioned Tornado Cash address on Scorechain's platform

How to perform crypto sanction screening with blockchain analytics?

What does the OFAC sanction of Tornado Cash imply in terms of crypto compliance? As a result of OFAC’s designations, the press release states that “all property and interests in property of the entity above, Tornado Cash, that is in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC.”

Scorechain blockchain analytics and crypto compliance software help companies worldwide in their sanction compliance process. Users can investigate crypto addresses, transactions, and entities against links with sanctioned entities or countries.

Crypto addresses sanctioned by OFAC are red-flagged in Scorechain’s database and assigned a low risk-AML score.

Flagged Tornado Cash address on Scorechain's platform

Besides, to facilitate their sanction screening process, customers can use:

the Risk Indicators feature, which displays automatic ref flags in case of links with specific activities;
The detailed incoming/outgoing funds analysis with insights into entities involved;
The Investigation Tool to check for links with specific activities, including OFAC sanctioned elements.

Don’t hesitate to request a demo of the solution and see how it helps with crypto compliance issues.

REQUEST A DEMO

List of OFAC-sanctioned Tornado Cash addresses

ETH addresses

0x8589427373D6D84E98730D7795D8f6f8731FDA16
0x722122dF12D4e14e13Ac3b6895a86e84145b6967
0xDD4c48C0B24039969fC16D1cdF626eaB821d3384
0xd90e2f925DA726b50C4Ed8D0Fb90Ad053324F31b
0xd96f2B1c14Db8458374d9Aca76E26c3D18364307
0x4736dCf1b7A3d580672CcE6E7c65cd5cc9cFBa9D
0xD4B88Df4D29F5CedD6857912842cff3b20C8Cfa3
0x910Cbd523D972eb0a6f4cAe4618aD62622b39DbF
0xA160cdAB225685dA1d56aa342Ad8841c3b53f291
0xFD8610d20aA15b7B2E3Be39B396a1bC3516c7144
0xF60dD140cFf0706bAE9Cd734Ac3ae76AD9eBC32A
0x22aaA7720ddd5388A3c0A3333430953C68f1849b
0xBA214C1c1928a32Bffe790263E38B4Af9bFCD659
0xb1C8094B234DcE6e03f10a5b673c1d8C69739A00
0x527653eA119F3E6a1F5BD18fbF4714081D7B31ce
0x58E8dCC13BE9780fC42E8723D8EaD4CF46943dF2
0xD691F27f38B395864Ea86CfC7253969B409c362d
0xaEaaC358560e11f52454D997AAFF2c5731B6f8a6
0x1356c899D8C9467C7f71C195612F8A395aBf2f0a
0xA60C772958a3eD56c1F15dD055bA37AC8e523a0D
0x169AD27A470D064DEDE56a2D3ff727986b15D52B
0x0836222F2B2B24A3F36f98668Ed8F0B38D1a872f
0xF67721A2D8F736E75a49FdD7FAd2e31D8676542a
0x9AD122c22B14202B4490eDAf288FDb3C7cb3ff5E
0x905b63Fff465B9fFBF41DeA908CEb12478ec7601
0x07687e702b410Fa43f4cB4Af7FA097918ffD2730
0x94A1B5CdB22c43faab4AbEb5c74999895464Ddaf
0xb541fc07bC7619fD4062A54d96268525cBC6FfEF
0x12D66f87A04A9E220743712cE6d9bB1B5616B8Fc
0x47CE0C6eD5B0Ce3d3A51fdb1C52DC66a7c3c2936
0x23773E65ed146A459791799d01336DB287f25334
0xD21be7248e0197Ee08E0c20D4a96DEBdaC3D20Af
0x610B717796ad172B316836AC95a2ffad065CeaB4
0x178169B423a011fff22B9e3F3abeA13414dDD0F1
0xbB93e510BbCD0B7beb5A853875f9eC60275CF498
0x2717c5e28cf931547B621a5dddb772Ab6A35B701
0x03893a7c7463AE47D46bc7f091665f1893656003
0xCa0840578f57fE71599D29375e16783424023357
0x58E8dCC13BE9780fC42E8723D8EaD4CF46943dF2

USDC addresses

0x8589427373D6D84E98730D7795D8f6f8731FDA16
0x722122dF12D4e14e13Ac3b6895a86e84145b6967
0xDD4c48C0B24039969fC16D1cdF626eaB821d3384
0xd90e2f925DA726b50C4Ed8D0Fb90Ad053324F31b
0xd96f2B1c14Db8458374d9Aca76E26c3D18364307
0x4736dCf1b7A3d580672CcE6E7c65cd5cc9cFBa9D

About Scorechain

Scorechain is a Risk-AML software provider for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. As a leader in crypto compliance, the Luxembourgish company has helped over 200 customers in 45 countries since 2015, ranging from cryptocurrency businesses to financial institutions with crypto trading, custody branch, digital assets, customers onboarding, audit and law firms, and some LEAs.

Scorechain solution supports Bitcoin analytics with Lightning Network detection, Ethereum analytics with all ERC20 tokens and stablecoins, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, XRP Ledger, Tezos, Tron with TRC10 and TRC20 tokens, and BSC with BEP20 tokens. The software can de-anonymize the Blockchain data and connect with sanction lists to provide risk scoring on digital assets, transactions, addresses, and entities. The risk assessment methodology applied by Scorechain has been verified and can be fully customizable to fit all jurisdictions. In addition, 300+ risk-AML scenarios are provided to its customers with a wide range of risk indicators so businesses under the scope of the crypto regulation can report suspicious activity to authorities with enhanced due diligence.