Cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash has lost 50% of its users due to US sanctions and the arrest of its developer

According to the Dune platform, the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash is experiencing a significant drop in the number of active users due to the imposition of sanctions by the US Treasury Department and the arrest of the service’s developer Alexei Pertsev. Thus, the number of unique users, weekly deposits and withdrawals fell by 50% since August.

In terms of deposits and withdrawals on Tornado Cash, these figures are currently less than one tenth of the results at the beginning of 2022. Thus, in the last week of September, deposits amounted to $ 3.6 million and withdrawals amounted to $ 5 million, which is the lowest for the platform.Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev also has disappointing news: according to information provided by his wife, the court rejected the appeal and ordered Pertsev to remain behind bars at least until the end of November. It is unknown whether the developer will be released after that. According to Ksenia Malik, the court refused to take into account any arguments of the defense and unlawfully dismissed the appeal. In addition, the Dutch prosecutor’s office will seize Pertsev’s property and sell it at auction. The developer’s car, which was confiscated on the day of the arrest, will also be sold.

To briefly summarize the situation with Tornado Cash, in early August, the United States imposed sanctions prohibiting American citizens and businesses from using Tornado Cash services. A few days after the sanctions were imposed, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was detained in Amsterdam. The developer was defended by many members of the cryptocurrency community, human rights activists, and co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin and founder of Cardano Charles Hoskinson. After that, Pertsev was accused of collaborating with the FSB.