ETH whale moves $12.82M to Tornado Cash after August buy

An Ethereum wallet sent 5,170 ETH, worth roughly $12.82 million, into Tornado Cash on October 13, 2026, according to the on-chain analyst Ai Yi. Coincentral reported the movement, which was made through several transfers rather than a single transaction.

Ai Yi said the same address had bought 5,147 ETH on August 12 and 13 at an average price of $1,886.70. On those figures, the analyst put the wallet’s paper profit at about $3.056 million. Screenshots the analyst shared showed repeated outflows, most of them around 100 ETH each, and referenced an Arkham wallet explorer to document them.

Key facts

• 5,170 ETH, valued at about $12.82 million, was sent to Tornado Cash on October 13, 2026, per Ai Yi.
• The wallet acquired 5,147 ETH on August 12-13 at an average price of $1,886.70.
• Ai Yi estimated the position’s paper profit at roughly $3.056 million.
• The transfers were split into multiple deposits, mostly around 100 ETH each.
• Ether fell toward $2,404-$2,416 around 04:00 UTC before trading near $2,530 by about 08:40 UTC.

Two separate Tornado Cash cases

The deposit is distinct from two other Tornado Cash episodes that drew attention in recent days. Crypto.news reported that the attacker behind Triple-A’s July treasury breach sent 4,970 ETH, about $12.4 million, into the mixer on October 9 through 56 deposits, according to the blockchain security firm Salus. Salus traced 49 deposits of 100 ETH and seven deposits of 10 ETH, and said the two fund streams reached a single wallet from separate intermediary addresses after assets were moved across blockchains, swapped, and split on September 6.

Triple-A has said the July breach hit company treasury assets rather than customer funds, which it holds in separate trust accounts, and that the loss was estimated at about $11.8 million. The company attributed the access to social engineering against an engineering employee and said it brought in forensic and tracing specialists alongside Singapore police.

A third set of transactions was reported in connection with hardware wallets sold through the reseller CryptoBilis. Crypto.news said the October 12 report on that investigation traced some suspected stolen funds into Tornado Cash, while Ledger said its own systems had not been compromised.

Ai Yi’s account describes a purchase followed by deposits. No evidence presented so far links the wallet in that account to the Triple-A breach or to the reseller investigation, and the transfers on their own do not establish who controls the address or why the funds entered the privacy service, which obscures the link between deposits and withdrawals.

Ether’s volatile session

Ether dropped toward $2,404-$2,416 around 04:00 UTC on October 13 and later recovered above $2,500, trading near $2,530 by about 08:40 UTC. The bounce followed heavy liquidations in Ethereum positions on October 9, when leveraged trades closed during a wider market selloff, and it came alongside recent outflows from ether funds.

Large holders have been active in both directions. An October 11 report covered whale purchases of 166,000 ETH spread across three days, though Coincentral noted those transactions involved different wallets from the one Ai Yi tracked.

Why it matters

Tornado Cash deposits are public, but attribution is not: reading intent into a transfer of this size is a common mistake, and neither report claims the whale was selling or doing anything illegal. The parallel timing of three unrelated Tornado Cash cases also matters for readers, because the Triple-A breach involved alleged theft from a named company’s treasury, while the October 13 deposits came from a wallet whose ownership is unknown. Blockchain analytics firms and exchanges typically treat mixer inflows as a risk signal, so the wallet’s later activity may draw additional scrutiny regardless of what the deposits were for.

What to watch

The next signals are on-chain: whether the wallet behind the October 13 deposits moves the funds again, and whether Salus, Arkham or other trackers tie any of the three cases together. Crypto.news also noted that Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s retrial is scheduled for April 26, 2027, after a judge granted a postponement, and that a final pretrial conference was set for April 20, 2027.

Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment, financial or trading advice. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile. Always do your own research.

Sources: CoinCentral, Crypto.news