Following the news of the US Treasury imposing sanctions against crypto mixer Tornado Cash, USDC-issuer Circle has blacklisted wallet addresses controlled by the crypto mixer.
Centre is the consortium (formed by USDC-issuer Circle and exchange platform Coinbase) behind the USDC stablecoin. It has stopped the movement of at least 75,000 USDC by blacklisting Tornado Cash wallets on the sanctions list.
One of the addresses belongs to Tornado Cash’s USDC pool. This means that those who deposited their USDC on Tornado Cash maybe unable to withdraw it.
When Centre blacklists an address, the owner is no longer able to receive or transfer USDC funds on-chain from that account. Thus, due to the blacklisted wallet addresses, Tornado Cash will no longer be able to access the USDC funds in those accounts.
The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash for allegedly helping the North Korean hacking group, Lazarus launder money.
Circle said, “Circle is a regulated company and conforms to sanctions compliance requirements. We have addressed the sanctions and blocked the addresses associated with OFAC’s Tornado Cash designation.”
Currently, the site of Tornado Cash appears to be down. Even its Github page has disappeared in the hours since the OFAC announcement.
