On August 10, Netherlands officials arrested a Tornado Cash developer. According to a publication by the state agency investigating financial crimes, the 29-year-old suspect is involved in hiding illicit financial activities, making money laundering easier by mixing cryptos via the Ethereum-based mixing service Tornado Cash. The release added that multiple arrests aren't ruled out.
Related: dYdX Blocked User Accounts Related to Tornado Cash
Previously, the US Treasury revealed sanctions against Tornado saying it was involved in major hacks, including those related to North Korean criminals.
Tornado Cash was founded in 2019 as a privacy protocol. The news of the arrested developer caused active discussions on Twitter. CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong called the arrest insane, saying the developer was arrested for writing a code that aims to improve privacy in crypto. He noted that authorities need to pursue the parties misusing the service and not the creator of the code.
Researcher Jeff Coleman wrote that Tornado Cash was used by people to contribute funds to Ukraine, as they wanted to maintain financial privacy. Vitalik Buterin responded that he also used Tornado for that purpose.
However, despite the possible benefits, a number of platforms blocked Tornado after the sanctions by the US government. This includes GitHub, Circle, dYdX, and others. Recently, Tornado’s DAO went offline.