This is indicated in the notification of the Ministry of Finance, notifies Ukrinform.

“Today OFAC sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion in virtual currencies since its inception in 2019.” Said.

The platform is also said to be involved in laundering more than $455 million stolen by Lazarus Group, a hacking group controlled by the North Korean government. The United States sanctioned him in 2019 for the group’s involvement in the largest known cryptocurrency theft.

In addition, Tornado Cash was used to launder more than $96 million stolen by Harmony Bridge attackers in June of this year, and at least $7.8 million in the heist of cryptocurrency company Nomad last week, according to the US Treasury.

The Tornado Cash (Tornado) platform is a virtual currency mixer that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and facilitates anonymous transactions without verification. At the same time, the source, destination and counterparties from which the virtual currency is received are masked.

The principle of operation of such platforms is that different incomes are obtained, mixed into the total amount and transferred to other buyers. Initially, the purpose of creating such “mixers” was to increase privacy, but they were actively used by criminals for illegal financial transactions.