- The US Treasury will let the users withdraw their funds from Tornado Cash.
- Ethereum mixing service was sanctioned by the department previously.
- The decision was followed by the lawsuits filed against the Treasury officials.
User Backlash Proved Helpful
The backlash created by the users after the US Treasury implemented sanctions on the Ethereum mixing service, Tornado Cash, has made an impact. The authorities say that users can withdraw their funds persisting in the wallets by applying for OFAC license, official authorization from the Office of Foreign Asset Control. It is believed that 174 Million USD are still lying in the service’s smart contracts.
Tornado Cash has become popular over its services to obfuscate the transactions, which makes them anonymous but easy to track. Authorities believe that the service is used by the bad actors including the North Korean hackers for money laundering. A North Korea-based cybercriminal group, Lazarus, was involved in the Ronin Bridge hack during March 2022.
The decision comes after six people sued the Treasury officials in the court due to the sanctions. The filed document says that the government has gone beyond their authority. According to the government, Korean attackers have wiped over 3 Billion USD illicitly using services like Tornado Cash.
Koreans have created a hullabaloo in the cryptosphere, where decentralized finance remains their favorite target to attack. Reports say that they have stolen over 1 Billion USD solely from the DeFi ecosystems this year. Axie Infinity remains the top victim of these attackers in 2022.
The Ronin Bridge attack was so chaotic that it impacted the entire Axie ecosystem. Lazarus Group, the hacker group believed to be behind the event, took advantage of the developer bug to enter the space and vanished 625 Million USD worth of crypto assets. It became the second largest hack in the history of cryptocurrencies.
The crypto sector is still in its infancy. Many believe that the sector is going to be a huge hit in the upcoming years, while several experts are still under the skepticism whether the crypto winter will end or not. Whatever the future is, one thing is for sure, hackers will keep looking for the loopholes. The developers should constantly upgrade their codes to keep the systems intact and stay clear of such events.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/09/14/users-can-recover-the-tornado-cash-funds-says-the-treasury/