The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) recently sanctioned cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, which has been used by North Korean cyber criminals such as state-sponsored Lazarus Group to support cyber activities and launder the stolen proceeds of hacks against cryptocurrency businesses. This designation of Tornado Cash is a watershed moment, not only for the crypto industry but for financial sanctions overall as it targets a widely used mixing service, potentially answering the question of whether or not mixing services at large will be allowed to operate as long as they remain susceptible to illicit actors.  

In the hours following the designation, Ari Redbord sat down with TRM's team of experts to discuss the significance of Tornado Cash as a target of sanctions, how these events fit into wider efforts to combat the use of crypto for money laundering and illicit activity, and what these sanctions mean for crypto businesses and other regulated institutions on-the-ground who need to respond to incorporate these updates into their operations in real-time.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about