© Reuters
Investing.com – Crypto transaction anonymization (or “mixer”) platform Tornado Cash has found itself in the crosshairs of the US Treasury Department after the open-source project was also used for criminal activity.
The platform ended up on a US sanctions list, on which ended up all the wallets that made deposits and withdrawals. US users therefore no longer had the option of transferring their cryptocurrency holdings to cryptocurrency exchanges, as they are prohibited from interacting with sanctioned wallets.
The Ministry of Finance has issued guidelines on how funds can be withdrawn without being threatened with penalties. US users must therefore contact the OFAC department to request a license to withdraw funds deposited before August 8th.
“U.S. citizens or persons transacting within U.S. jurisdiction may apply for a special license from OFAC to transact with the relevant virtual currency.
Users must also provide ‘at a minimum’ information about their transactions, including sender and receiver wallet addresses.”
At the same time, the authority says that US citizens are still prohibited from interacting with the platform.
As Tornado Cash Developer Alexay Pertsev Arrested, Crypto Exchange Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:) is helping fund a class action lawsuit against the Treasury Department.
Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase CEO Paul Grewal have also used Tornado Cash in the past. This allowed them to make anonymous donations to Ukraine without themselves being in the crosshairs of the Kremlin.
By Marco Oehrl