Buterin, Armstrong, Aoki Target Tornado Cash ETH Duster

Key receivers

A person is withdrawing the sum of 0.1 ETH to the assets of many well-known crypto personalities. The man behind the stunt has targeted Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Steve Aoki and Beeple, among others. The outcome of the incident is unclear, but it can have serious implications for both the attacker and the victims.

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Following yesterday's sanctions by the US Treasury, someone has been using Tornado Cash to withdraw ETH into the wallets of several high-profile crypto personalities. The implications of the stunt are not clear, but it can be powerful and far-reaching.

Key wallets accept ETH with Tornado Cash.

A rogue Tornado Cash user is using the fallout from US Treasury sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixer to create a little chaos.

Ever since the US Treasury Department officially sanctioned the popular Ethereum mixer, a user behind an Ethereum address beginning with 0x12d6 used the protocol to send 0.1 ETH to multiple wallets belonging to popular cryptocurrency users. Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Jimmy Fallon, Ryan Sean Adams, Anthony Sassano, Steve Aoki, Cozomo de' Medici, Logan Paul, Beeple, Shaquille O'Neal's “Shake Gives Back” NFT project, and the Ukrainian Crypto Donation Fund are among the many addresses that have received ETH dusting. .

While the attacker has not been identified, the operation may be the work of Twitter user Depression BTC (@depression2019), who said yesterday afternoon that they were “accumulating a very large list” of popular crypto Twitter users' ETH addresses and Ethereum name service domains. Names and plans to withdraw ETH from Tornado Cash to an unlimited number.

A pretty big collection of major CT users' ETH addresses and their official .ns addresses.

Spending .1 ETH from Storm to all for the rest of the day

— Depression BTC (@depression2019) August 8, 2022

The user said they would attack ENS names first, before warning their ENS users with hate, saying, “You can run, but you can't hide.”

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy, added Tornado Cash and its associated addresses to its list of sanctioned entities yesterday. The sanctions prohibit US persons from having any economic dealings with such entities. According to guidance from the Treasury website, “U.S. persons and entities otherwise subject to OFAC's jurisdiction, including organizations that facilitate or engage in online commerce or engage in digital currency transactions, are responsible for ensuring that they do not engage in unauthorized transactions prohibited by OFAC.” Sanctions, such as dealing with prohibited persons or properties, or engaging in prohibited business or investment-related transactions.

The Ethereum user behind the scandal appears to be in clear violation of US sanctions, but there is a more serious question as to whether or not the dustup violated the sanctions of the recipient wallets. According to the same guidelines, a U.S. person who holds “embargoed” currency must “prohibit all parties from accessing that virtual currency, ensure compliance with OFAC regulations related to the holding and reporting of embargoed assets, and implement controls consistent with the following.” Risk-Based Approach” In addition, holders of frozen assets have 10 days to report the funds to OFAC. Those receiving this ETH are responsible for freezing the funds and reporting them to OFAC.

Since the announcement, several major crypto entities have complied with the Treasury's sanctions, including Circle freezing USDC in Tornado Cash and GitHub deleting the accounts of several Tornado Cash developers. Node infrastructure providers Alchemy and Infura have now blocked access to the protocol. The development has faced heavy criticism from the crypto community, with concerns over privacy and anti-censorship at the fore.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this article owns ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.

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