Sovereignty incident · inc-2022-xx-usdc-tornado-cash
USDC addresses blocked after the Tornado Cash sanctions
On 8 August 2022 the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash. The same day, Centre, the consortium behind the USDC stablecoin, blocked the related addresses, and Circle blocked them on its platform. The issuer's statement concerns USDC and names no frozen amount. Tornado Cash was removed from the sanctions list on 21 March 2025.
- When
- Since (ongoing or open-ended)
- Jurisdictions
- No single jurisdiction
- Kinds
- Freeze
What happened
The incident begins.
- Open
No end date: ongoing or open-ended.
Forms of money
Who was affected: Holders of USDC at the blocked addresses.
Forms of money affected
Forms of money not affected
None listed for this incident.
Each form of money links to the Money in everyday life matrix, which compares their properties with sources.
Sources
Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Press release jy0916: U.S. Treasury Sanctions Notorious Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash (8 August 2022); Circle Internet Financial, Blog: Uncharted | The Responsibility of Trust (August 2022); U.S. Department of the Treasury, Press release sb0057: Tornado Cash Delisting (21 March 2025)