The U.S. Treasury Division right this moment sanctioned Twister Money, an Ethereum coin mixing software.
In a Monday announcement, the physique added the Twister Money web site and a protracted record of Ethereum addresses to its Specifically Designated Nationals record, banning Americans from utilizing the software or transacting with these addresses.
Twister Money is an app that lets customers make personal transactions on the Ethereum community. It does this by pooling collectively cryptocurrency deposited by many customers and mixing them so transactions are obscured.
The Treasury Division’s announcement listed numerous Ethereum addresses linked to the Twister Money neighborhood, together with addresses the place folks might donate funds. In response to Nansen researcher Andrew Thurman, the record of banned addresses even consists of one belonging to Gitcoin, an Ethereum-based funding platform for open-source initiatives.
The Treasury Division mentioned it took these measures as a result of criminals had used Twister Money to launder cash. “Right now, the U.S. Division of the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) sanctioned digital forex mixer Twister Money, which has been used to launder greater than $7 billion value of digital forex since its creation in 2019,” the assertion learn.
The announcement added that Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, used Twister Money to launder over $96 million after it hacked Concord Bridge in June.
It additionally mentioned that criminals used Twister Money to launder $7.8 million stolen in last week’s Nomad Bridge hack.
In April, Twister Money said it used a software from blockchain monitoring agency Chainalysis to forestall addresses sanctioned by the U.S. authorities from utilizing the privateness app.
This evidently wasn’t adequate for U.S. authorities. Underneath Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence Brian E. Nelson added: “Regardless of public assurances in any other case, Twister Money has repeatedly did not impose efficient controls designed to cease it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors frequently and with out fundamental measures to deal with its dangers.”
Ethereum is the community behind the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, and hundreds of tokens run on its blockchain. Its native coin, ETH, at present trades for slightly below $1,800 and has a market cap of over $219 billion.