Tornado Cash accused of facilitating financing for North Korea’s nuclear programme.

OFAC updated sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, citing its role in financing North Korea’s nuclear programme.

According to the agency, the service facilitated malicious cyber activity, the proceeds of which helped fund North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programme.

Additionally, OFAC explained who could potentially fall under sanctions due to ties with Tornado Cash. This includes founders, developers, DAO members or Tornado Cash users, as well as other persons supporting the service.

To date, the agency has not announced additional restrictions on any particular individuals or entities.

In August, OFAC added Tornado Cash to the sanctions list on suspicion of laundering over $7 billion in cryptocurrency. The service was used by the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.

Chainalysis estimates that, during its operation, Tornado Cash processed over $3.5 billion, of which up to $1.2 billion was directly linked to thefts, hacks and other illicit operations.

Elliptic researchers say that Tornado Cash was actively used to launder money obtained from NFT fraud.

On 12 August, Dutch authorities arrested Tornado Cash’s developer Alexey Pertsev. He is suspected of involvement in laundering funds and concealing criminal financial flows. In late September, the court remanded Pertsev in custody for two months.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury allowed users to withdraw digital assets from Tornado Cash–affiliated addresses. GitHub partially unlocked the mixer’s code repositories.

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