It has been previously stated that the market price of Tornado Cash dropped suddenly. The news about the DeFi protocol becoming the victim of a crypto exploit last week was reported a few hours after the price decline was reported.
Additionally, according to data from CoinMarketCap, Tornado Cash recently fell by 28.25%, albeit this figure only reflects a retraced value. The token first fell by over 60% after hearing of TORN’s attack until regaining support at the $3.86 price point.
According to recent reports, the hacker who took over the authorized cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash has given up control of the service and is now utilizing the protocol to launder the digital tokens that were looted during the attack.
The Aftermath of the Hacking Incident
According to Nansen, a research company, the exploiter was successful in stealing 483,000 of the protocol’s native TORN tokens. After converting a sizable portion of the loot into Ether, the hacker used Tornado Cash to launder 472 of the latter, valued at around $900,000.
Additionally, Tornado Cash has been utilized by criminals and North Korean hackers, which prompted the US to impose restrictions on the site. Tornado Cash, on the other hand, is said by some cryptocurrency backers to benefit legitimate users’ privacy.
Since the protocol’s inception in 2019, data from Dune Analytics has shown that more than $8 billion has been sent through it. According to reports, the attacker took control of Tornado Cash’s governance about a week ago by taking advantage of a weakness.
It is well known that the aforementioned governance typically belongs to the crypto community. Considering this, the attacker effectively gave up that power on May 26. The TORN token was seen to have fallen after the hacking incident, falling from over $7 to less than $4, but has subsequently risen back to around $4.50, according to CoinGecko.
Hackers Target Tornado Cash
It’s important to note that before yesterday’s crime, Tornado Cash had participated in crypto heists in a different way than as the target. It is important to remember that the TORN protocol is decentralized. It mixes “potentially identifiable or tainted cryptocurrency funds with others” in a non-custodial tumbler to hide the funds’ original route.
The DeFi project was used in a few crypto heists as a “money laundering” technique as a result of this service. The $625 million Ronin heist in 2022 is one of the most well-known heists. Following the robbery, around 2000 ETH, which was worth roughly $2 million at the time, was transferred to Tornado Cash.
Another noteworthy occurrence occurred when the U.S. placed TORN on a blacklist. Foreign Assets Control Office. This has led to the protocol’s exclusion for all nationals of the United States.
Moreover, the recent $200 million robbery from Euler Finance and the $28 million Derbit hack in 2022 are two other well-known heists that used Tornado Cash to move some of the stolen money.
