US Treasury Cracks Down on Crypto Mixer

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Facts

  • The US Justice Department on Wednesday cracked down on the founders of virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash.1
  • Co-founders Roman Semenov and Roman Storm were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.1
  • Storm was arrested in Washington state Wednesday, but Semenov, a Russian national remains at large. Alexey Pertsev, a third co-founder, was arrested in August of 2022 and charged with money laundering.1
  • Tornado Cash stands accused of laundering more than $1B, including millions that went through the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking organization.2
  • Mixers charge a fee for helping customers conceal the origin of their crypto funds during transactions – allowing privacy for users while potentially letting others hide their identity for nefarious reasons.3
  • Earlier this month, a US District judge responded to a lawsuit from a group of crypto investors by ruling the US Treasury did not overstep its bounds in sanctioning Tornado Cash last year.4

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2Yahoo finance, 3TechCrunch and 4Abc news.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by CNBC. This is a clear-cut case of money laundering, as the co-founders of Tornado Cash knew their privacy service was enabling hackers and other criminals to execute scams undercover. Even after they were advised to implement software to prevent criminality, they chose to continue allowing untraceable, anonymous transactions.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Wall street journal. All the accused did was develop software, and now the government is bending its interpretation of the law to arrest innocent people. There’s more to this story that will come out once it gets to trial and the government will have to answer for its overreach.