In 2024, over 60% of ETH deposits made to Tornado Cash were from high-risk accounts, such as those connected to significant cryptocurrency breaches
A Global Ledger report that was shared with crypto.news claims that between January 1 and November 27, more than $552 million in stolen cryptocurrency was laundered through the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash.
During this time, Tornado Cash got 457,768 ETH, which is currently worth over $1.64 billion. The majority of these funds originated from high-risk sources, with over 56 percent of the total linked to cryptocurrency breaches in 2023 and 2024.
This represents a significant increase over 2023, when Tornado Cash processed withdrawals totaling 314,740 ETH.
The biggest contributor this year was the July WazirX hack, in which the hacker used the mixing service to transfer 61,698 ETH, or around $217.2 million.
The second largest amount of money laundered was 52,281 ETH ($189.1 million) from the Heco Bridge heist. Although the incident occurred in 2023, the perpetrator laundered the money in March of this year.
Likewise, the hackers responsible for the Poloniex hack used Tornado Cash to transfer 18,874 ETH ($68.4 million). In the meantime, the Orbit Chain hack generated 12,930 ETH ($46.8 million).
Last but not least, the Penpie hack increased the mixer’s illegal transactions by 11,261 ETH, or $40.8 million.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash for its involvement in money laundering. According to the authorities, the business has handled more than $7 billion in illegal payments since 2019, including $455 million connected to the Lazarus Group in North Korea.
A U.S. court recently decided that the Treasury had overreached itself by authorizing certain immutable smart contracts from Tornado Cash.
According to the Global Ledger report, this decision sets a “dangerous precedent” that might impede international efforts to fight financial crime in the cryptocurrency industry. As regulators struggle to enforce compliance, “bad actors may launder even larger amounts of cryptocurrency.”
According to the article, the ruling may also cause regulators to enforce more stringent regulations and erode investor trust, “which could mean legitimate businesses face heightened scrutiny and tighter reporting requirements.”
