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Tornado Cash sentence ‘radically unfair and unreasonable’ — Nym CEO

CEO Harry Halpin pointed to history and used Nazi Germany as an example of why digital privacy must be protected in the 21st century.

Harry Halpin, the CEO of Nym, a privacy-focused project, recently shared his thoughts on the sentence handed down to Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev.

During an interview with Cointelegraph's Jonathan DeYoung at Consensus 2024, Halpin characterized the sentence as "radically unfair and unreasonable" and provided these analogies:

The Nym CEO then pointed to WWII-era history as a prime example of why privacy must be protected in the 21st Century. Halpin explained that during the Second World War, the Netherlands saw most of its Jewish population exterminated by the Nazis due to sophisticated identity tracing systems not present in other European countries like France.

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Early Crypto Adopter: Unmatched Privacy of ZK Proofs Outweighs the Technology’s Perceived Disadvantages

Early Crypto Adopter: Unmatched Privacy of ZK Proofs Outweighs the Technology’s Perceived DisadvantagesAlthough zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs are often considered complex to set up, Iva Wisher, co-founder of the Layer two platform Prom, argues that the technology’s unparalleled privacy, faster transaction finality, and overall efficiency outweigh any developmental complexity. Wisher, an early adopter of cryptocurrency, acknowledges that the industry is currently working to address usability concerns associated with […]

Bitcoin Likely To Explode To Up to $100,000 Before the End of 2024, Says Michaël van de Poppe – Here’s Why

Freedom of speech isn’t a ‘trump card’ for Tornado Cash developers

Does code as freedom of speech mean that developers aren’t responsible for how their creations are used?

Crypto industry advocates are locked in a debate with regulators over whether a protocol’s code constitutes free speech, and what that means for liability. 

Lawmakers have long accused the crypto industry of facilitating illicit activities, from money laundering to financing terrorism. This has led to several court cases, arrests and even incarcerations.

Recent high-profile examples include the arrests of developers who worked on crypto mixers Tornado Cash and Samurai Wallet, as well as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SECs) planned enforcement action against decentralized exchange Uniswap.

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Tornado Cash verdict has chilling implications for crypto industry

The conviction of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev reinforces a very broad interpretation of criminal liability, which has major repercussions for blockchain.

The conviction of Alexey Pertsev, a developer of coin-mixing protocol Tornado Cash, comes from a chilling interpretation of criminal liability likely to have wider ramifications for crypto.

The Dutch court’s guilty verdict means Pertsev must now serve a sentence of five years and four months for money laundering through Tornado Cash. This is despite the fact that Pertsev had no direct involvement in the laundering itself.

Andrew Balthazor, a litigator with the legal firm Holland and Knight, spoke with Cointelegraph to explain the implications of the verdict.

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UN Experts Say North Korea Laundered $147,500,000 in Stolen Crypto via Tornado Cash in March: Report

UN Experts Say North Korea Laundered 7,500,000 in Stolen Crypto via Tornado Cash in March: Report

Members of a United Nations expert panel monitoring North Korea sanctions reportedly found a link between the totalitarian state and the crypto mixer Tornado Cash. According to Reuters, a confidential document from the monitors told the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee that North Korea used Tornado Cash to launder $147.5 million worth of stolen crypto […]

The post UN Experts Say North Korea Laundered $147,500,000 in Stolen Crypto via Tornado Cash in March: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Bitcoin Likely To Explode To Up to $100,000 Before the End of 2024, Says Michaël van de Poppe – Here’s Why

Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to Five Years and Four Months in Prison by Dutch Court

Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to Five Years and Four Months in Prison by Dutch Court

Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been sentenced to 64 months in jail for laundering billions of dollars, according to a new Dutch court press release. The Netherlands’ Oost-Brabant district court handed down the sentence Tuesday for his involvement in creating the Ethereum (ETH)-based coin mixing system that helps users obfuscate their digital assets. Says […]

The post Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to Five Years and Four Months in Prison by Dutch Court appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Bitcoin Likely To Explode To Up to $100,000 Before the End of 2024, Says Michaël van de Poppe – Here’s Why

Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to 64 Months for Money Laundering

Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to 64 Months for Money LaunderingA Dutch court has sentenced Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev to five years and four months in prison for laundering $2.2 billion through the cryptocurrency mixing service. The case represents a pivotal moment for decentralized finance (defi) regulation and crypto privacy. Dutch Court Imprisons Tornado Cash Developer for $2.2 Billion Money Laundering via Crypto Mixing […]

Bitcoin Likely To Explode To Up to $100,000 Before the End of 2024, Says Michaël van de Poppe – Here’s Why

Tornado Cash developer guilty of money laundering

Pertsev has been under arrest in the Netherlands since August 2022 after the United States government blacklisted Tornado Cash.

Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the cryptocurrency mixing protocol Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering, raising potentially severe implications for open-source code developers.

Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering by Dutch judges at the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal on May 14. The developer was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion worth of illicit assets on the platform.

The sentencing came despite Tornado Cash being a noncustodial crypto mixing protocol — meaning that the funds that go through the protocol are never held or controlled by it.

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Stolen Poloniex Ether worth $53M never made it back to the exchange

The Poloniex hacker moved over 17,800 Ether (ETH) from six different wallets into a single Tornado Cash address.

Over half of the $100 million worth of Ether (ETH) linked to the infamous Poloniex hack from November 2023 has been siphoned via the privacy protocol Tornado Cash.

On Nov. 10, 2023, wallets belonging to crypto exchange Poloniex recorded massive unauthorized outflows. Investigations later confirmed that over $100 million worth of ETH was lost to a hack.

Despite Poloniex claiming to have identified the hacker weeks later and offering a $10 million bounty, the stolen funds never made it back to the exchange. According to the blockchain security firm CertiK, the incident was likely a “private key compromise.”

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Bitcoin Likely To Explode To Up to $100,000 Before the End of 2024, Says Michaël van de Poppe – Here’s Why

Sens. Lummis, Wyden oppose Justice Dept. stance on Tornado Cash charges

If the Justice Dept. prevails in the case against the cryptocurrency mixer, internet service providers and the post office may also be liable to transmitter requirements, they said.

United States Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland voicing their concern over the Justice Department’s (DOJ’) interpretation of money transmission licensing. 

As the bipartisan authors indicate in a footnote, this interpretation is being applied in the case against Roman Storm, co-founder of crypto mixer Tornado Cash, who has been charged with operating an unlicensed money transmission operation and other serious crimes.

The Bank Secrecy Act and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) clearly define money transmission as the acceptance and transmission of currency and other forms of value. Non-custodial crypto service providers do not meet the established definition of money transmitters, and the DOJ is thus acting contrary to the Treasury, muddying policy enforcement, the senators said. In their words:

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