It looks like the gloves are off as TORN, the native token of crypto privacy platform, Tornado Cash; is down approximately 45%, which is almost half its market valuation.
To recall, the department accused Tornado Cash, a crypto privacy platform; of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies, including a stash of $455 million allegedly stolen by North Korea-based hackers.
So far, immediate reactions were by US-base crypto companies, Circle and Coinbase. In a controversial move, the popular crypto firms blocked the movements; of their jointly-issued stablecoin USDC tied to Tornado Cash’s blacklisted smart contracts. As you would expect, the move has prompted traders to limit their exposure to TORN. On the daily chart, TORN’s price has slipped by approximately 45% since the Justice Department’s notice about Tornado Cash, to reach $18.80 as of the time of this writing.
By contrast, the valuation of all the crypto assets has rallied over 3% in the same timeframe as the entire crypto market capitalization currently stands at $1.14 trillion. Interestingly, TORN’s selloff accompanied a spike in daily trading volumes, suggesting momentum.