Yesterday, it became known that the US Treasury banned American companies and individuals from using the so-called crypto mixer known as Tornado Cash. Yet, the blacklisting of the service had no effect on the crypto market. In spite of public support for the founder of the popular protocol, a number of addresses were still blocked.
Tornado Cash allowed users to hide their crypto transactions. According to the US Treasury, the service was used by North Korean hackers and other organizations for money laundering. Tornado Cash has been used to launder more that $7 billion, the Department estimated.
In spite of public uproar, accounts and websites related to Tornado Cash were deleted. The US government wants every cryptocurrency transaction to be tracked, controlled, and linked to a person, the crypto community slammed the government. Some crypto enthusiasts believe that actions against Tornado Cash are directed at crypto exchanges and the entire community.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 related to Tornado Cash were also disabled. Since GitHub is owned by Microsoft, the authorities obviously had no trouble with the blocking.
"Like any company that does business in the US, GitHub may have to restrict users and customers identified as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) or other denied or blocked parties under US and other applicable sanctions laws, 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," GitHub stated in an email.
Roman Semenov, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, twitted that his GitHub account had been suspended. "Is writing an open source code illegal now?" he asked. In this light, the TORN token plummeted by 24% to $22, according to CoinGecko. The token has lost as much as 95% since hitting its all-time high in February 2021.
Technically, BTC is ready for a new bull run. If the digital asset goes down, speculators are likely to protect the nearest support at $23,480 with the important level of $22,720 located slightly below. Breaking through the mark, the price could head towards $22,180, $21,430, and $20,700 lows. Should demand for BTC increase, an uptrend could emerge once the price breaks above $24,280 resistance. The digital asset could reach $25,700 and $26,700 highs if it consolidates at this level.
Should ether face stronger pressure, bullish activity is likely to increase at around $1,740. Support stands at $1,650 and $1,575. The instrument could plunge to the $1,500 low once support is broken. In the case of bearish ETH, targets are seen at around $1,420 and $1,350. Should growth extend, bulls could push ether to $1,910 when the price settles above $1,830 resistance, with a target at $2,000.
