Following the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) banning Tornado Cash and a number of associated Ethereum-based addresses, an anonymous Tornado Cash user has dusted a swathe of well known wallets tied to ENS domain names. Onchain data shows that celebrities and other organizations have received 0.1% of the cryptocurrency platform. Blockchain explorers indicate Linkin Park’s Steve Aoki, Youtuber Logan Paul, the Ukraine Crypto Donations address, comedian Jimmy Fallon, the sneaker company Puma, and rap star Snoop Dogg are among the recipients.
Celebs, well-known organizations receive 0.1 Ether from the Tornado Cash platform
After a variety of celebrities and well-known organizations received funding from the platform, the United States government recently banned Tornado Cash (the ETH mixer Tornado Cash) from being used. Because many celebrities purchased Ethereum Name Service domains, the addresses of these organizations and celebrities are now public. Other people have posted their public addresses to show off their NFTs.
For instance, it is public knowledge that “Shady_Holdings” is an account on Opensea and its associated ethereum address is connected to Marshall Mathers, otherwise known as the rap star Eminem. Mathers was able to get lucky, and he didn’t lose out like the famous NFT collectors who did receive OFAC-banned Ethereum.
Someone is out dusting a bunch of wallets from Tornado with 0.1 ETH lmaaaaooooohttps://t.co/3NfLuz9qYF pic.twitter.com/xsmiyM8sxq
— joseph.eth (@josephdelong) August 9, 2022
It’s not guaranteed that the ENS domain names that were dusted are directly connected with the names registered, as anyone can register an ENS name if it’s not yet taken. However, the public has been made aware of many companies and individuals who have purchased ENS domains. For example, Budweiser bought beer.eth’s ENS name on August 11th 2021 for $96K. Some celebrities have paid high prices for NFTs such as Cryptopunks or Bored Apes.
Reports revealed that Tornado Cash users sent tiny amounts of ETH, or dusted off some of them, to a variety of ENS addresses that were allegedly linked to celebrities and other well-known organizations on August 9th 2022. A large number addresses were addressed by the sender, which sent $168 in 0.1 ETH. sneaker giant PumaThe address for Ukraine Crypto Donations is also available. Furthermore, ENS names reportedly tied to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz were sent a small fraction of the so-called ‘tainted ether’ as well.
Onchain data shows Snoop Dogg’s alias ENS name “Cozomo de’ Medici” was dusted. Youtuber Logan Paul and Steve Aoki, a Linkin Park NFT artist, as well as Jimmy Fallon (comedian and TV host) were among those who received dusting. Randi Zuckerberg, Shaquille O’Neal, and Dave Chappelle were also dusted by OFAC-banned ether.
Most of the ENS names can be verified as being associated to the real person, because the ENS name was used by the individual when they displayed the NFT. Because it’s illegal for an American to interact with Tornado Cash in any way, those who do associate with the platform may get investigated and some may face charges for disobeying sanctions laws.
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong got OFAC’d pic.twitter.com/utIY2c3YYt
— db (@tier10k) August 9, 2022
However, because the mass dusting caught the attention of the media and crypto users on social media, it’s pretty clear that the dusted people and organizations had no intention of receiving funds from the sanctioned entity. U.S. laws state that Americans can get jail time for any American citizen and any U.S.-based organisation that interacted in any way with Tornado Cash or the sanctioned cryptocurrency addresses.
How do you feel about Tornado Cash’s mass dusting of celebrities and other organizations? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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