Although the stablecoin issuer has not received a request to suspend Tornado Cash-affiliated accounts yet, it hinted that it would comply if it did. According to a report by the Washington Post, the largest stablecoin issuer may not be following the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions against Tornado Cash, a crypto transaction privacy mixer, according to a today’s report.
This publication refers to analysis by Dune Analytics of crypto intelligence data, which shows that Tether in Hong Kong has not blacklisted accounts associated with Tornado Cash.
Paolo Ardoino (Tether’s Chief Technology Officer) stated to the publication that Tether had not been approached by U.S. officials with a request for Tornado Cash transactions to be frozen.
He stated that Tether “normally comply[s] with U.S. authorities requests” and that U.S. Treasury Department sanctions are “part of its world-class compliance programme.”
Decrypt reached out to Tether in an attempt to find out if it was enforcing sanctions on Tornado Cash. However, he has not received a reply.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions on Tornado Cash earlier this month. It stated that the measures were taken because of criminals who had used the privacy mix “to launder more $700,000,000 worth virtual currency since its inception in 2019”.
Although $7 billion is the approximate amount of funds that have been passed through the privacy tool’s privacy tool, Elliptic blockchain data shows that only $1.5 Billion was illegally obtained.
Many people in the U.S. and elsewhere have opposed the sanctions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights activist group, stated that it was ” deeply worried,” while Coin Center, a non-profit crypto policy organization, said it was ” considering a court challenge.
Jesse Powell, CEO at crypto exchange Kraken joined the chorus last week calling the sanctions ” Unconstitutional.
Five days after the U.S. issued sanctions against Tornado Cash, the Netherlands Fiscal Information and Investigation Service announced that it had detained a “suspected Tornado Cash developer”. The arrest was condemned by privacy advocates and crypto enthusiasts .
Although the move might seem to be related to U.S. sanctions the FIOD stressed it had been working under the direction the Dutch Prosecutor’s Office but hasn’t coordinated with U.S. government. also didn’t make arrest due to Treasury’s blacklisting the mixer.
Non-profit DeFi Education Fund reached the FIOD to ask questions about the arrest. Although the enforcement agency refused to confirm whether Alexey Pertsev was the 29-year-old accused, it said that coding could be considered a crime if the code is written “solely for the purpose of committing criminal acts.”
