CoinJoin, a semi-decentralized mixing protocol for bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin), is now blacklisting cryptocurrency tied to illegal activity. Being part of the Wasabi Wallet, the protocol from now on will start blocking cryptocurrency tagged with dirty crypto.
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A Twitter user Rafe tweeted that the Wasabi team is thus trying to "protect the company and the project by minimizing the amount of these hackers and scammers using the coordinator and getting us in trouble."
"This should be in the rights of the company to do but believe me, none of us are happy about this," Rafe added.
With the latest update, CoinJoin will be blacklisting transactions involving the zkSNACKs coordinator. However, the blacklisting does not work with other alternative coordinators. The move comes after the US authorities asked crypto exchanges to help prevent the use of digital currencies to circumvent sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and organizations.
According to reports, the White House National Security Council and the US Department of the Treasury asked operators of the world's largest decentralized crypto platforms to stop any attempts to circumvent restrictions imposed by the US and its partners following the Russian military operations in Ukraine.
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