On August 8, 2022, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) updated its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List adding TORNADO CASH (a.k.a. TORNADO CASH CLASSIC; a.k.a. TORNADO CASH NOVA) along with 44 addresses from the Ethereum blockchain. This was an example of OFAC implementing sanctions on the person/entity level. OFAC, which sits within…
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CipherTrace Cryptocurrency Intelligence Update: 07/16/2021 On July 1, Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) released a seizure order listing several cryptocurrency addresses across several blockchains associated with donation campaigns carried out by designated terrorist organization Hamas. In addition to bitcoin and Ethereum, the seizure order demonstrates that Hamas also collected donations in Tether,…
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SANCTIONS UPDATE: On April 15, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 16 individuals and 16 entities for attempting to undermine and influence the 2020 US presidential election. The sanctions list includes Russian officials, proxies, and intelligence agencies linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA)—a Russian “troll farm”…
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This analysis by CipherTrace looks at Iran’s proposed Crypto-Rial sovereign virtual currency. We conclude that such a currency and the regulations that Iran is proposing, will in fact, result in a flourishing cryptocurrency — i.e., one that benefits the regime through increased surveillance, taxation, access to global financial markets, and evasion of sanctions. The reasoning…
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