On August 10, the Dutch crime agency FIOD announced the arrest of the 29-year-old developer of crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash.

Tornado Cash is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency mixing platform that was sanctioned earlier this month by the US Treasury.

The United States banned “Tornado Cash” because the platform had extensive currency laundering potential and helped mask the identity of the funds of many individuals associated with criminal activities.

According to FIOD, the suspect is allegedly involved in the crimes of concealing illicit financial flows and facilitating money laundering.

“Tornado Cash” facilitates money laundering according to the “FIOD” authority:

FIOD noted that cryptocurrency mixers tend to facilitate money laundering, as these platforms are primarily used to increase anonymity in financial transactions.

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The Tornado Cash platform has been under investigation since June 2022 by the regulator FIOD due to its possible links with criminal organizations such as hacking group Lazarus.

However, as a decentralized protocol it would be difficult to punish those behind the platform, because the platform’s governance decisions are made by the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) with no central entity overseeing the platform.

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This has been a concern for law enforcement agencies, as criminal activity linked to crypto-scraping has reached an all-time high this year.

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