​​Elliptic: Tornado Cash was a key service for NFT scammers T | Crypto_NFT

​​Elliptic: Tornado Cash was a key service for NFT scammers

The U.S.-sanctioned Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer has been the tool of choice for laundering funds from the NFT scam. This is stated in the report of the analytical company Elliptic.
According to them, the mixing service was the source of $137.6 million worth of crypto assets processed by NFT marketplaces. With its help, 52% of the proceeds from illegal operations with NFTs were laundered.
“The widespread use of Tornado Cash for non-fungible token scams highlights the need for effective oversight by NFT platforms,” the analysts added.
Tornado Cash did not comment on this information.
According to Elliptic, in general, since 2017, cybercriminals have laundered more than $8 million of illegal funds through NFT marketplaces, which is 0.02% of the total trading turnover.
In the same period, $328.6 million (0.81%) connected with the market of non-fungible tokens passed through cryptomixers. Part of this amount may reflect income from illegal activities.
From July 2021 to July 2022, over $100 million worth of tokens were stolen.
Recall that on August 8, OFAC added to the sanctions list the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer on suspicion of laundering over $7 billion in cryptocurrencies.
On August 12, Dutch authorities arrested Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the service. The authorities suspect him of involvement in money laundering and concealment of criminal financial flows.
Celsius Network said in a lawsuit last week that its former wealth manager Keyfi and its founder Jason Stone stole millions of dollars worth of platform assets, including by converting them into hundreds of NFTs and using Tornado Cash.