The U.S. Department of Treasury has lifted sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer previously sanctioned for its role in laundering over $7 billion since 2019. This decision follows a November 26, 2024 ruling by a Fifth Circuit federal appeals court, which determined that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “overstepped its congressionally defined authority” when it originally sanctioned the platform in August 2022.

## North Korean Hackers’ Preferred Laundering Tool

Tornado Cash gained notoriety as the preferred money laundering vehicle for North Korea’s Lazarus hacking group, who used it to process approximately:

– $455 million from the $620 million Axie Infinity’s Ronin network theft
– $7.8 million from the $150 million Nomad Heist
– $96 million from the $100 million Harmony Bridge hack

The platform was also utilized in attacks against Beanstalk DeFi, Audius, Uniswap, and the Arbix Finance exit scam.

## Legal Actions Against Founders Continue

Despite lifting sanctions on the platform itself, legal actions against Tornado Cash’s founders remain in place:

– Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were charged in August 2023 with facilitating the laundering of over $1 billion
– Storm was arrested in Washington, while Semenov was sanctioned for supporting the Lazarus Group
– Alexey Pertsev, another co-founder, received a 64-month prison sentence in the Netherlands for helping launder over $2 billion

## Ongoing Concerns About North Korean Cyber Threats

“We remain deeply concerned about the significant state-sponsored hacking and money laundering campaign aimed at stealing, acquiring, and deploying digital assets for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Kim regime,” the Treasury Department stated.

North Korean hackers have stolen over $6 billion in crypto assets since 2017, including a record $1.5 billion heist from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, confirmed by the FBI to be the work of Lazarus hackers.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized that “securing the digital asset industry from abuse by North Korea and other illicit actors is essential to establishing U.S. leadership and ensuring that the American people can benefit from financial innovation and inclusion.”