key takeaways
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire criticized the US Treasury’s decision to approve Tornado Cash, saying that approving open source software marks a turning point in the history of the Internet.
- Allaire called on industry leaders, lawmakers and developers to come together to establish a policy framework that will protect consumer privacy.
- Following the US Treasury’s decision to approve the protocol, Circle froze approximately $75,000 worth of USDC in wallets linked to Tornado Cash.
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Circle immediately complied with the US Treasury’s decision to approve Tornado Cash, but its CEO is calling on industry leaders to establish a privacy-enabled policy framework.
Circle CEO Comments on Treasury Sanctions
Crypto industry leaders are speaking out against the US Treasury’s decision to ban Tornado Cash.
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire joined a growing list of major crypto players to weigh in on the issue today, posting a tweet storm. Express His concerns about the Treasury’s move to approve all Ethereum addresses associated with the popular cryptocurrency mixer.
The Treasury announced that it had banned Tornado Cash and its smart contracts on Monday. In a press release, the US government department described the protocol as “a virtual currency mixer that siphons the proceeds of cybercrime.” It said $7 billion had been processed through the protocol since its launch.
Tornado Cash is an Ethereum-based protocol that helps users preserve their privacy by obscuring their transaction history. Although it is a popular tool within the Ethereum community, it has also been used several times by hackers, Including the North Korean state-sponsored cybercrime syndicate Lazarus GroupBecause it provides a way to launder crypto assets with relative ease.
According to Allaire, the ban marks a turning point in the history of Internet and blockchain technology as the US government targeted a piece of open source software rather than a specific entity. Allaire said the move “raises extraordinary questions about privacy and security on the Internet.”
Indicated in Allaire a Tuesday blog post While the Circle had an obligation to comply with the law, they thought approving the protocol was a “major policy issue”. He added that Circle will be calling on crypto industry leaders, lawmakers, associations, developers and regulators to develop a legal framework and policies that follow the “principles of financial integrity …
In response to Treasury restrictions, Circle early compliance and blacklisted accepted addresses, accumulating more than $75,000 in USDC in the process. Other organizations such as Github, Infuria and Alchemy have since followed suit,
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this article owns ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.