An anonymous troll is sending celebrities Ethereum from a Tornado Cash wallet—presumably as a way to demonstrate how difficult it will be for the U.S. government to enforce its ban on the mixing service.
So far, Jimmy Fallon, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and YouTuber Logan Paul are among the celebrities “dusted” by the troll, meaning their Ethereum wallets have received small amounts of Ethereum.
Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash, an Ethereum coin mixing tool. Tornado Cash previously pooled together transactions in order to obscure their origins and make it much more difficult to work out where digital cash was being sent from.
The authorities claimed that criminals—including Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group—used the app to launder billions of dollars-worth of dirty funds.
It is now illegal for American citizens to interact with Tornado Cash, and that may include receiving funds from addresses using the app. But, in reality, it is impossible to stop other people from sending crypto to your wallet address if it is publicly known.
Today’s troll is proving this: musicians, internet celebrities, and even tech CEOs all received tiny amounts of Ethereum from an anonymous Tornado Cash user.
So far, PUMA, Beeple and Steve Aoki, and even the Ukraine Crypto Donation Ethereum address all “interacted” with the criminal address.
Will the authorities take action?
