Tornado Cash’s accounts are disabled after US slapped sanctions on cryptocurrency mixers

After the US Treasury Department said it had barred American companies and individuals from using a so-called cryptocurrency mixer known as Tornado Cash, fans of the service rallied in support of the founders of the popular protocol.

Tornado Cash allowed users to obfuscate their cryptocurrency transactions; the Treasury alleged that North Korean hackers and other entities had relied on it to launder illicit gains totalling more than US$7 billion.

But within hours, those fans (and critics) were reacting to something else: the erasure of accounts and websites linked to Tornado Cash from the internet.

A GitHub account that previously hosted code related to Tornado Cash returned a “page not found” error, as did the website linked to the project. Emails to the Tornado Cash founders bounced back with the message, “The email account that you tried to reach is disabled.” GitHub, owned by Microsoft, is a way for developers to collaborate on software projects.

In an emailed statement, a GitHub spokesperson said that trade laws require GitHub to “restrict users and customers identified as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) or other denied or blocked parties, or that may be using GitHub on behalf of blocked parties.”

“We examine government sanctions thoroughly to be certain that users and customers are not impacted beyond what is required by law,” they added.