The US-approved Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer has become the tool of choice for laundering money from NFT scams. This is stated in the report of the analytical company Elliptic.

According to them, the mixing service was the source of $137.6 million worth of crypto assets processed by NFT markets. With his help, 52% of the proceeds from illegal operations with NFTs were laundered.

“The widespread use of Tornado Cash for non-monetary token scams highlights the need for effective surveillance by NFT platforms,” the analysts added.

Tornado Cash did not comment on this information.

Overall, since 2017, cybercriminals have laundered more than $8 million in illegal funds through NFT marketplaces, accounting for 0.02% of total trade turnover, according to Elliptic.

In the same period, $328.6 million (0.81%) was passed through crypto mixers tied to the non-tradable token market. Part of this amount may reflect income from illegal activities.

Over $100 million tokens were stolen from July 2021 to July 2022.

Remember August 8 OFAC Cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash has been sanctioned on suspicion of over $7 billion in cryptocurrency laundering.

On August 12, Dutch authorities arrested Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the service. Authorities suspect him of involvement in money laundering and concealment of criminal financial flows.

Celsius Network said in a lawsuit last week that former asset manager Keyfi and founder Jason Stone stole millions of dollars in platform assets, including converting hundreds to NFTs and using Tornado Cash.

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