Tornado Cash Faces Cutback in its Number of Weekly Transactions

Users of Tornado Cash, the crypto mixer which has been in the news more often recently have drastically reduced.

So far, Tornado Cash has experienced about a 52% drop in the number of customers who patronize the platform on a monthly basis. Data from Dune Analytics, a crypto analytic firm showed a drastic drop in September from the all-time high number of unique users per week that Tornado Cash had in August.

In August, the number of users was as much as 775 while September had as low as 49 unique users per week. This trend started in mid-August after the crypto mixer was sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for its involvement in laundering over $7 billion in digital assets since its inception. 

In addition to the reduction in the number of users, the crypto mixing company has also experienced a reduction in the number of transactions performed on its platform on a weekly basis.

Significantly, the weekly deposits, withdrawals, and other trading has reduced. Cumulatively, the number of weekly users fell from over 2,600 in July to less than 1,300 in the months following.

In terms of deposits and withdrawals, September saw more withdrawals than deposits on the crypto mixing platform. The total weekly deposits amounted to $3.6 million while the withdrawals reached $5 million. 

Tornado Cash Pertsev Likely to Spend More Time in Jail

Since its troubles with the U.S Treasury Department OFAC, Tornado Cash and its associates have been under a lot of pressure.

In addition to the crypto mixer’s sanction, 44 Ethereum (ETH) addresses and USDC wallets have also been added to the OFAC sanction list. Alex Pertsev, a developer discovered to be responsible for the Tornado Cash software which is used for money laundering was arrested by the Dutch authorities. 

After his arrest, it was assumed that he was going to spend only 14 days in custody following his meeting with the examining judge in the Den Bosch court.

Along the line, Pertsev made an appeal that was outrightly rejected by the court. Instead of the presumed 14 days, he is likely to spend more time in jail, up to two months.