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Ethereum Mixer Tornado Cash Has Received Almost $2 Billion in 2024 Despite Sanctions

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In the first six months of 2024, more than $1.9 billion has been deposited onto Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash (TORN). Although things have slowed down in July—the protocol has seemingly attracted only $65.1 million worth of deposits, according to data provided by crypto analytics service Flipside.

Given Tornado Cash’s nature as a mixer, the total value locked (TVL) metric used for judging an ecosystem’s activity level is not as reliable. Total value locked refers the the value of assets that have been deposited into a decentralized application. That’s why TVL isn’t typically used to measure activity on Tornado Cash. The expected use case is to deposit funds and then withdraw anonymized funds—rather than keep them in the protocol for a long time like with most decentralized finance services.

Still, DeFiLlama data for Tornado Cash’s TVL shows sizeable growth, with the protocol starting the year at under 160,000 ETH and currently standing at nearly 168,600 ETH. In U.S. dollars, this is a growth from $374.4 million to the current value of $572.82 million — when taking asset value growth into account.

What is Tornado Cash?

Tornado Cash is a coin mixer that was created to preserve the privacy of crypto users. Using zero-knowledge proof cryptography, the protocol anonymizes user deposits and allows their withdrawal to a new address that cannot be traced to the old one.

The Ethereum mixer has seen inflows from wallets associated with major hacks, including the hacker behind the Poloniex hack sending $3.3 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) to the mixer back in early May. Due to transactions linked to hacks—including some allegedly linked to North Korea—the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash in early August 2022.

This was then followed by the lengthy legal prosecution against Tornado Cash developers which was seen as a major overreach by much of the crypto community. This prosecution is still ongoing, with a last week ruling delaying the money laundering trial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, over the objections of the prosecution.

Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal said in April that the U.S. Treasury is “bending old laws past their breaking point” by placing blame for Tornado Cash’s misuse on developers and TORN holders.

Immutable, open-source software code isn’t property, which creates a real issue for Treasury, as it’s authorized to regulate only ‘property’ in which a foreign national has an interest, he said at the time.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in late May that Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev being sentenced to 64-months in prison was “really unfortunate,” and continued to back privacy-centric crypto tools, encouraging people to develop “next-gen” solutions.

“I think a lot of people have been going under the assumption […] that just building software is something that’s okay,” he said during a fireside chat at DappCon in Berlin, “and is a totally legal and legit way to fight for privacy.”

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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Blockchain

Eclipse launches public mainnet of first SVM L2 on Ethereum

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Eclipse Foundation announced on Nov. 7 that Eclipse, a Solana Virtual Machine-powered layer-2 on Ethereum, had launched its public mainnet.

The milestone is a key step in Eclipse’s quest to bring the best of both Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) to users, Eclipse Foundation said in a press release.

Vijay Chetty, CEO of Eclipse, noted that bridging these leading networks for decentralized applications and finance could drive a new wave of ecosystem development. Key areas likely to see growth from increased dApp activity include DeFi, consumer applications, and gaming.

“Eclipse is uniquely positioned as the first solution to bridge the gap between Solana and Ethereum, offering a powerful platform that caters to both communities. Our goal is to empower developers from both ecosystems to build and scale their dApps like never before, unlocking new opportunities across the largest networks in the industry.”

Vijay Chetty.

Eclipse’s launch of the layer-2 public mainnet follows its developer-focused mainnet release in October. Since then, the platform has expanded its ecosystem by integrating projects such as Orca, Nucleus, and Save.

Developers on Eclipse can utilize Solana’s parallel execution capabilities and Ethereum’s liquidity and security, alongside access to Ethereum’s vast user community and asset base. Eclipse’s architecture enables developers to leverage the Solana Virtual Machine for scaling and enhanced user experiences.

As a result, Eclipse aims to eliminate the previous fragmentation that required developers to choose between the two ecosystems.



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cryptocurrency

TRUMP, MAGA, and other Trump-themed tokens crash after election day

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Donald Trump-themed meme coins TRUMP, MAGA, TREMP, and STRUMP have tanked, with their total market capitalization down over 21% on the day, after Trump secured a victory in the U.S. election.

MAGA (TRUMP), the largest Trump-themed meme coin in terms of market cap fell 50.7% over the past 24 hours, exchanging hands at $1.71 when writing. The altcoin’s market cap fell from $212 million seen on Nov. 6 to $79 million when writing.

MAGA Hat (MAGA) a meme token inspired by Trump’s iconic red hat worn during his political campaigns also collapsed by 51% with its market cap falling to $39 million. 

Dark MAGA (DMAGA) which saw the highest gains on Nov. 5, climbing from $0.008 to $0.0018 overnight. The meme coin has since plunged by 62% from its pre-election level and was trading at $0.0045, wiping out over $13.5 million from its market cap. Similarly, Super Trump (STRUMP) also faced a sharp drop of 54.9%, with its market cap shedding $11 million.

Other popular meme coins that previously capitalized on Trump’s presidential victory but have crashed at press time, include Doland Tremp (TREMP), TRUMPCOIN, TRUMP 47 (47), and Pepe Trump (PTRUMP) which suffered losses between 50-65%.

Traders seemed to have sold the news, a familiar trend for meme coins, which often experience sharp sell-offs after hype peaks—just as with Dogecoin (DOGE), the industry’s first and largest meme coin.

Dogecoin’s meteoric rise leading up to Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance in May 2021 became a classic case of traders selling the news. DOGE rallied to an all-time high of $0.73 ahead of the May 8 airing date as Musk, an avid Dogecoin supporter, teased his role on SNL. 

However, the hype fizzled quickly during and after the broadcast, as traders rushed to offload their holdings with the price of DOGE dropping over 30% within hours. At current prices, the token remains 74% below its all-time high.

This pattern also seems evident in PolitiFi tokens, which are often referred to as “event coins,” as they move in tandem with political developments. However, the downturn comes despite Trump’s victory, which could mean the hype around this meme coin subset is waning.

A likely scenario is that a lot of the liquidity from these PolitiFi tokens is flowing into Bitcoin (BTC) and other altcoins as the flagship crypto has been printing new highs over the past day fueling hopes that the bull market is starting.

Prominent altcoins like Ethena (ENA) and Raydium (RAY) have posted double-digit gains, while the overall meme coin market is up over 13%, suggesting that PolitiFi tokens are facing an isolated sell-off now that the elections are over.



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cryptocurrency

Immutable receives SEC Wells notice over 2021 IMX token sales

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United States Securities and Exchange has targeted blockchain gaming platform Immutable potentially targeting its listing and private sales of the IMX token in 2021.

According to a Nov. 1 statement from Immutable, the SEC issued an “accelerated” Wells notice following an initial interaction where the SEC informed the company that a Wells notice would be sent “within the week,” but delivered it “within hours” instead.

Immutable highlighted the vague nature of the notice, stating that it “simply cited statutory provisions” with “fewer than 20 words of material explanation” and offered little meaningful detail about the investigation’s focus. The company believes the agency’s claims could be targeting the “listing and private sales” of its native IMX token in 2021.

Shortly after issuing the notice, the SEC reportedly engaged in a phone call with the firm, raising concerns over a 2021 blog post in which Immutable detailed Huobi Ventures’ early investment in IMX at a pre-launch price of $0.10 issued at a “$10 pre-100:1 split”, stating that there had been no “exchange of value” in the deal.

Immutable disputes this claim, arguing that the investment was, in fact, legitimate and backed by “real consideration.” 

The firm added it is “confident in its position” regarding the classification of the IMX token, pushing back against what it described as the SEC “indiscriminately claiming that tokens across the industry are securities.” 

Immutable called for a “robust conversation to clarify facts” and expressed its willingness to challenge the SEC’s enforcement approach if necessary.

Reacting to the news, Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson reiterated the company’s position to “defend digital ownership in gaming” by joining contemporaries like Robinhood and OpenSea in defending against the SEC’s claims.

While a Wells notice does not guarantee that formal action will be taken, the development came as a blow to Immutable’s IMX token which was down more than 14% at press time.

The SEC, led by Chair Gary Gensler, has consistently gone after crypto firms for allegedly skirting securities laws. This has also sparked pushback from U.S. policymakers, who say Gensler is creating confusion in the digital asset space by introducing terms like “crypto asset security.”

Yet the regulator remains unfazed, recently issuing a Wells notice to Crypto.com. In response, Crypto.com filed a lawsuit challenging the commission.





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