Raydium hacker funnels $2.7 million through Tornado Cash mixer

An Ethereum address connected with an exploit of Raydium laundered $2.7 million in ether (ETH) through Tornado Cash on Jan 19., security firm CertiK noted.

In December Raydium, a decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain, was hacked for over $4.4 million in different assets. The hacker was able to withdraw Raydium’s liquidity pool (LP) tokens into their control after compromising the admin account keys powering Raydium’s smart contracts. The hacker later moved the stolen funds to Ethereum.

More than a month after the incident, an address labeled by Etherscan as the exploiter of Raydium, transferred $2.7 million in stolen assets to Tornado Cash. Hackers often funnel stolen assets to Tornado Cash because it allows them to obscure the transaction history.

Tornado Cash has been in the spotlight since last year for being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Following the sanctions, all US-based individuals and entities are prohibited from interacting with the app, given its potential for money laundering.

Even after the sanctions were announced, Tornado Cash has continued to be widely used by hackers of decentralized finance protocols.

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