Tornado Cash attacked, Biden again slams crypto traders

Attacker took over sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash

Crypto mixer Tornado Cash was effectively taken over in an attack on Saturday, CoinDesk reported.

The attacker or group of attackers floated a proposal to the decentralised organisation running the blender at the beginning of the weekend, which hid malicious code that would give them fake votes.

When the proposal went through, it effectively gave the attackers control of the DAO and enabled them to reportedly “withdrew 10,000 votes as TORN and sold it all,” according to a security researcher who goes by the handle @samczsun.

Since the attack, a wallet linked to the heist has reportedly proposed to reverse the malicious changes to the DAO’s governance.

Tornado Cash is widely accused of being used by criminals to launder money and has been sanctioned by the US government.

Its developer Alexey Pertsev faces criminal charges in the Netherlands. Pertsev is due for another hearing this week.

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Biden slams ‘wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders’

Joe Biden repeated his attacks against “wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders” as underserving beneficiaries of Republican policies this weekend.

The US President made the comment as he wrapped up his participation of the G7 forum in Japan, Decrypt reported.

He made the comment in relation to Democrats’ ongoing budget negotiations with the opposing party.

Biden made a similar swipe against Republicans earlier in May, with his Twitter account suggesting that while Democrats want to plug crypto tax loopholes worth $18 billion, Republicans want to cut a near-equivalent $15 billion in food safety inspection funding.

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MakerDAO to vote on privacy proposals

MakerDAO, the multibillion-dollar DeFi cooperative, is gearing up to vote on proposals to force all delegates to hide their identities and whereabouts.

The change is intended to make it impossible for criminals and hostile governments to target members, according to founder Rune Christensen who has championed the initiative.

The vote has, however, divided the community as it it also involves a “whistleblower bounty” for people to tattle on their anonymous peers.

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Crypto wallet among US sanctions

A crypto wallet linked to an Irish United Arab Emirates resident was named among a new smattering of US sanctions this week.

The Sanctions, rolled out by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, are designed to target companies, people and entities that helped Russia move money as the country face sanctions due to the war in Ukraine, CoinDesk reported.

The wallet in question has received over $5.2 million in Tether since the war started and the man linked to the account has been accused of helping Russians move money out of Russia and into the UAE.

Criminals swindled $2m off of businessman

Criminals swindled a Hong Kong businessman of roughly $2 million, the South China Morning Post reported.

The man was tricked by scammers who posed as investment experts who had befriended him on Facebook.

The con saw the victim set up an account on a fake app to invest in cryptocurrencies.

More news from around the web...

China’s BSN builds blockchain systems on its own terms — with no crypto and Xi’s guiding hand — DL News

A husband hid $500,000 in bitcoin during a divorce — and got busted by a crypto hunter — CNBC

Bhutan turns to crypto in search of fast growth — The Financial Times

A previous version of this story used a photo of a person that wasn’t Pertsev.