Cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash is at the center of a scandal again — hackers transferred more than $ 2 million

According to Ethereum Etherscan, the hacker who stole about $ 28 million from the hot wallet of the Deribit cryptocurrency exchange transferred $ 2.5 million to the notorious Tornado Cash mixing service.

As security experts found out, after the Deribit hack, the attacker transferred 1,610 ETH to Tornado Cash (in August, the mixer and its associated 44 ETH wallets and USDC were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department). The Deribit team announced a temporary suspension of operations for the period of remediation.

The company is conducting a comprehensive check and will open the functionality for customers as soon as the security service is confident that all problems have been resolved. Deribit clarified that all customer funds are safe, and the exchange’s losses are compensated from the company’s reserves.

It is worth noting that due to the imposition of sanctions by the US Treasury Department and the arrest of the service’s developer Alexey Pertsev, Tornado Cash is experiencing a significant drop in the number of active users (obviously, sanctions do not prevent hackers from using the mixer).

A brief summary of the situation with Tornado Cash: in early August, the United States imposed sanctions that prohibit American citizens and businesses from using Tornado Cash services. A few days later, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was detained in Amsterdam. Many members of the cryptocurrency community, human rights activists, and co-founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency Vitalik Buterin and founder of the Cardano cryptocurrency Charles Hoskinson stood up to defend the specialist. After that, Pertsev was also accused of collaborating with the FSB and remained behind bars until at least the end of November.