ETH Mixer Tornado Cash Reveals Blocking OFAC Sanctioned Ethereum Addresses via Chainalysis Oracle Contract

According to the project’s official Twitter account, Tornado Cash, the ethereum mixing service that allows participants to shuffle ether, is blocking flagged ethereum addresses listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN). The decision follows the recent OFAC update, that lists the Ronin exploiter’s ethereum address, … Read more

Wasabi Wallet to Begin Censoring Coinjoin Transactions

Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-oriented bitcoin-only wallet, has announced it will start introducing censorship methods into its mixing procedures. The announcement was made on social media, where the official account of Wasabi explained that a blacklist will prevent some UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs) from registering to Coinjoins, the method Wasabi and other wallets use to enhance … Read more

De-Mixing Wasabi Coinjoin Transactions: A Deep Dive Into Chainalysis’ Deanonymizing Claims

On Tuesday, journalist Laura Shin published a story that claims to identify the 2016 Genesis DAO hacker who siphoned 3.6 million ethereum from the decentralized autonomous organization. While the story surprised the crypto community, one of the biggest eye-openers was the blockchain analysis methods leveraged, and the claim that Chainalysis allegedly “de-mixed” Wasabi transactions. Community … Read more

Journalist Claims She Identified the 2016 DAO Hacker, Evidence Shows Investigators ‘De-Mixed’ Wasabi Transactions

An article published by journalist Laura Shin, and research stemming from the blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis, claims to identify the alleged identity of The DAO hacker who drained millions of dollars worth of ethereum from the decentralized autonomous organization on June 17, 2016. Shin’s and Chainalysis’s findings accuse the former Tenx CEO, Toby Hoenisch, of … Read more

Over 67,000 Fusions: Cashfusion Participants Have Fused Billions of Dollars in Bitcoin Cash

While some crypto users have been leveraging privacy-centric digital assets like monero, others still use mixing protocols that shuffle unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) from coins like bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash. Participants using the Bitcoin Cash network utilize applications like Cashshuffle and Cashfusion. Since Cashfusion was introduced in November 2019, there’s been 67,845 fusions or … Read more

MTI Bitcoins Sent to Privacy Mixers as New Data Breach Exposes the Ponzi Scheme’s Top Earners

In another twist to the Mirror Trading International (MTI) bitcoin Ponzi scam, the blockchain intelligence firm Whitestream says bitcoins from wallets associated with the company are being sent to Wasabi privacy mixers. According to Whitestream’s update, this pivot to mixers suggests that operators of the Ponzi are trying to obfuscate the movement of the bitcoins. … Read more

Study: Over 13% of All Proceeds of Crimes in Bitcoin Passed Through Privacy Wallets in 2020

According to a study published by the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, over 13% of all proceeds of crime in bitcoin (BTC) were laundered via privacy wallets in 2020, up from 2% from the figures posted in 2019. 13% of All Proceeds of Crimes Leveraging BTC Were Laundered Via Privacy Wallets Dr. Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s co-founder … Read more

Onchain Researchers Suspect Chinese Government Sold Plustoken’s Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Hoard Last Year

A number of masterminds from the Plustoken scam were sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding cryptocurrency investors. Last week, on November 19, a court ruling had shown the Chinese government said that it seized over $4 billion in crypto assets from the Plustoken scam. Meanwhile, onchain sleuths believe the Chinese government may have … Read more

Privacy Options Underutilized in Cryptocurrency Usage: Report

Advances in cryptography have not met with user enthusiasm, suggesting a disconnect between the cryptocurrency community and its cypherpunk ancestors. According to Coin Metrics, transactions of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies zcash (ZEC), monero (XMR), and grin only add up to 6% of bitcoin’s transactions. Zcash’s privacy feature is significantly underutilized, with less than 2% of transactions fully … Read more

Crypto Scammers Steal $381 Million in 2020, While Twitter Hackers Direct Funds to Mixers

Cryptocurrency related scams have taken a total of $381 million from victims so far this year. This figure makes crypto scams the largest category of cryptocurrency-related crimes so far in 2020. Chainalysis data still shows current figures are well below those seen in 2019. In 2019, scams accounted for 74% of crypto-related crimes. The current … Read more