Tornado Cash is an immutable non-custodial privacy protocol that uses zk-SNARK proofs to break the on-chain link between deposit and withdrawal addresses.
Deposit a fixed denomination, then withdraw to a fresh address with no on-chain link between them.
An observer's best guess: 1 in 1,200 that any given deposit is the source.
You send a fixed amount into the pool contract and receive a secret note. On-chain, only a commitment (a hash) is recorded — it is indistinguishable from every other deposit's commitment in the same pool.
Each deposit inserts a leaf; the contract recomputes the hash path up to a single root that proofs verify against.
Live signals detected by Sentinel monitors across all five risk classes.
See each alert's affected component, root-cause analysis, and recommended action. Pro members get the full risk breakdown for every protocol.
Every Ethereum transaction is publicly linkable between sender and recipient, leaking the entire on-chain history of any wallet to anyone who looks.
Tornado Cash deposits a fixed denomination into a pool contract and lets the user withdraw to a fresh address using a zk-SNARK proof, severing the on-chain link between the two addresses inside an anonymity set of all other depositors in the same pool.
The mixer contracts are fully immutable — no admin, no upgrade, no pause, no blacklist — verified on-chain and proven through the 2023 governance attack (where the attacker hijacked the DAO but could not touch a single ETH in the pools).
Tornado Cash is a Privacy protocol operating on Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Gnosis, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum. Tornado Cash is an immutable non-custodial privacy protocol that uses zk-SNARK proofs to break the on-chain link between deposit and withdrawal addresses.
DeFi Sentinel rates Tornado Cash A with a safety score of 72/100, indicating low-to-moderate risk. The score reflects five risk dimensions: smart contract & technical risk, economic design & market risk, governance & centralization, sustainability & competitive position, and reputation & social trust. Tornado Cash has 1 audit on record. As with all DeFi protocols, residual risk remains and users should review the full risk breakdown before depositing.
Tornado Cash has a DeFi Sentinel safety score of 72/100 (rating A), last updated May 26, 2026. The score is computed across smart contract & technical risk (30%), economic design & market risk (25%), governance & centralization (20%), sustainability & competitive position (15%), and reputation & social trust (10%).
Tornado Cash is deployed on Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Gnosis, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum.
Yes. Tornado Cash has 1 audit report on record from firms including ABDK Consulting. Audit reports and dates are linked under the Resources tab on this page.
