News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Defiant, the Ethereum Foundation’s Kohaku Initiative has released an SDK for integrating privacy protocols into Ethereum wallets. A functional 4337 mempool relay supporting private transactions is now available in version v0.0.1-alpha.21 of the kohaku-eth/railgun integration. This SDK aims to integrate shielded-pool protocols—such as Railgun, Tornado Cash, and Privacy Pools—directly into wallet interfaces, reducing reliance on centralized relay infrastructure. Kohaku has also demonstrated a CLI-based wallet and is advancing integration with production-grade wallets like Ambire, while simultaneously developing post-quantum accounts, multisig support, and hardware wallet compatibility.
the deliberation of the "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act" (i.e., the CLARITY Act) has commenced in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. As of now:1. An amendment proposed by Senator Mike Rounds to create an AI regulatory sandbox was passed with 15 votes in favor and 9 against, indicating some bipartisan support, despite Senator Elizabeth Warren urging Democratic members to vote against it.2. An amendment proposed by Elizabeth Warren, aimed at "preventing high-risk assets from entering retirement accounts," was rejected with 11 votes in favor and 13 against.3. An amendment previously proposed by Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, which would have allowed certain retirement accounts to invest in pooled investment vehicles, was withdrawn before the vote.It is reported that one of the most contentious amendments comes from Elizabeth Warren, concerning the strengthening of sanctions authority over cryptocurrency mixers. In her remarks, she referenced the U.S.-sanctioned mixing protocol Tornado Cash, stating it has been used to launder over $7 billion for criminal organizations and North Korean hacker groups, including over $450 million in related funds. Warren argued that the current bill does not grant the U.S. Treasury Department sufficient legal authority to isolate or restrict mixer services, potentially creating loopholes in anti-money laundering oversight. In response, Cynthia Lummis countered that the illegal financial activities are already covered in Parts Two and Three of the bill.
Odaily News: Crypto In America journalist Eleanor Terrett posted on X platform, stating that Tornado Cash became the focus of the day's hearing, with lawmakers debating whether the bill provides law enforcement with sufficient tools to combat money laundering.Senator Warren told Kennedy: "This is the Tornado problem... Do you remember Tornado, that mixer? What is Tornado used for? If you're a terrorist, you put your money in!" Republican lawmakers argued that the Clarity Act provides tools to address this issue, while Warren stated the bill is insufficient. Other Democrats joined her in voting to support the inclusion of the amendment. The amendment did not pass.
According to monitoring by on-chain analyst Specter, the Wasabi Protocol attacker has deposited all stolen funds into Tornado Cash, moving approximately $5.9 million into Tornado Cash. Additionally, North Korean hacking groups have also used Tornado Cash to launder stolen funds from KelpDAO and LayerZero. Their process involved first cross-chaining the assets to Bitcoin, then routing them through Wasabi Mixer, extracting and cross-chaining back to Ethereum, depositing into Tornado Cash, subsequently withdrawing to new wallets and dispersing across multiple addresses. The new wallets then deployed tokens, used the stolen funds to buy in, removed liquidity from the deployment wallet, cross-chained to Tron (USDT), held for several hours or days, and finally sent to OTC-related wallets.
According to an official disclosure by ZetaChain, on April 27, ZetaChain suffered a targeted vulnerability exploit. The attacker first acquired funds via Tornado Cash and performed wallet address spoofing, then exploited a vulnerability in GatewayEVM’s arbitrary call functionality, resulting in approximately $334,000 in losses across four connected chains. ZetaChain stated that this attack did not affect cross-chain $ZETA transfers; all affected wallets were under ZetaChain’s internal control, and user funds remained unaffected. A patch for the mainnet has now been deployed, and cross-chain transactions will resume after ongoing monitoring.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT updated that funds related to the KelpDAO attack have begun moving: approximately $1.5 million has been cross-chained from Ethereum Mainnet to the Bitcoin network via Thorchain, and roughly $78,000 has been transferred via Umbra. The attacking address initially sourced its funds from Tornado Cash, and fund laundering and cross-chain transfers are ongoing.
According to Cointelegraph, stablecoin issuer Circle faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts for failing to freeze stolen funds during the Drift Protocol hack on April 1. Plaintiffs allege that attackers transferred approximately $230 million worth of USDC from Solana to Ethereum via Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) within hours—and that Circle failed to intervene. The lawsuit accuses Circle of aiding and abetting conversion and of negligence. Cryptocurrency analytics firm Elliptic previously suspected the attack may be linked to North Korea–backed hackers; the stolen funds were subsequently converted into ETH and laundered through Tornado Cash.