Original author: Tom Mitchelhill

Original source: Cointelegraph

Compiled by: koala, Mars Finance

Despite the sanctions, OFAC-sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash witnessed significant growth in deposit volumes in the first half of 2024. Banned crypto mixer Tornado Cash has seen an unexpected rise in deposits in the first half of 2024, despite ongoing sanctions and legal troubles faced by its founding team.

Tornado Cash received approximately $1.9 billion in deposits in the first six months, a 50% increase from the total deposit volume for all of 2023, according to data from Flipside Crypto.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) officially sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022 following reports that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group used the protocol to launder approximately $455 million in illicit funds.

Tornado Cash deposits surge after more than a year of sluggish activity

OFAC sanctions mean that anyone interacting with the protocol will be "blacklisted", prohibiting their wallets from being accepted on all cryptocurrency exchanges that comply with the law. In short, any wallet that interacts with the protocol will find it extremely difficult to convert cryptocurrency into fiat from centralized exchanges that comply with OFAC regulations. Despite these sanctions, the mixing service remains a popular choice for large hacker groups to conceal the flow of illicit funds.

Since May, the man behind the scenes has transferred $76 million of the $100 million stolen from the Poloniex exchange to the mixer.

In addition, the masterminds transferred $166 million and $48 million to the mixer through HECO Bridge and Orbit Chain vulnerabilities respectively in the first half of this year.

Most recently, one of the wallet addresses identified in the July 18 $235 million theft of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX received funds via a Tornado Cash deposit.