Developer of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash detained in Amsterdam

Law enforcement agencies have detained an alleged developer of a cryptocurrency mixing service in Amsterdam — the suspect is a 29-year-old local resident.

As it became known, the detainee was immediately taken to court and a hearing was held at 11:30 a.m. However, at the time of writing, law enforcement officials have not yet made the court’s decision public. The developer of Tornado Cash is suspected of laundering stolen cryptocurrencies and collaborating with criminals.

A few days earlier, the United States imposed sanctions prohibiting American citizens and businesses from using Tornado Cash services. In addition, API and node infrastructure providers, which are considered the backbone of the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystems, have begun blocking remote procedure call (RPC) requests to Tornado Cash. The move to block RPC requests prevents anyone using Alchemy or Infura in the background from accessing Tornado Cash.

Also yesterday, on August 11, the cryptocurrency exchange dYdX announced that it will not serve Tornado Cash users. The platform has blocked accounts with assets previously linked to Tornado Cash.