Funds for the renewed Ethereum DAO deposited through TornadoCash

The newly relaunched Ethereum DAO was funded through TornadoCash, once again pointing to Ethereum’s mission of privacy. The DAO will have a $220M reserve dedicated to funding security research.

The reserves for the new Ethereum DAO will go through Tornado Cash, meaning all subsequent transactions will be tainted. The main goal is to ensure that private transactions are still accepted as the norm, rather than a sign of hacking. 

One of the new DAO’s co-founders, Griff Green, announced the deposit of the intended 69,420 ETH into the Beacon Contract. Green also set up the stake through his griff.eth vanity address.

.@thedaofund‘s 69,420 ETH is Staking for Security. https://t.co/5kEKRmo0V5

— griff.eth – $GIV Maxi (@griffgreen) February 1, 2026

The wallet tagged as deploying the funds of the DAO was initially funded by Tornado Cash, carrying an Etherscan tag. For now, regulations on using funds tainted by Tornado Cash are variable, and exchanges do not necessarily screen for previous mixing. 

However, linking the Ethereum DAO with Tornado Cash officially is yet another statement in favor of privacy. Previously, Ethereum supporters have proposed the creation of private validator pools, which cannot be linked to a depositor address. 

DAO funds have to wait for more than 70 days

The potential passive income for the DAO may be delayed, as the funds first need to be accepted into the Beacon Chain contract. 

Due to increased demand for deposits, the DAO reserves may have to wait for over 70 days. 

The validator queue holds over 4M ETH waiting to be deposited to the contract, with almost no waiting for withdrawals. The waiting time accelerated to an all-time high and is now close to 71 days. 

The DAO will hold the funds for a potential passive income, which will be used for grants and research. The DAO will be part of the new spending schedule for the Ethereum Foundation, which aims to spend its reserves more conservatively in the coming years. 

Tornado Cash spread across Ethereum

Tornado Cash has received warnings for carrying traffic from DPRK exploits and hacks. However, the mixer has already spread to a large part of the Ethereum ecosystem, through general usage or even ‘dusting’ from dedicated wallets. 

The mixer has drawn in traffic from the entire crypto ecosystem, including centralized and decentralized exchanges, routers, and apps. 

Tornado Cash also received a peak amount of ETH and stablecoins, bringing its total value locked to an all-time high. The mixer contains over 361K ETH, while activity is recovering to levels not seen since 2021. 

The past year showed a gradual recovery of Tornado Cash from its low baseline activity. The mixer drew in traffic from decentralized exchanges for an additional layer of privacy. Vitalik Buterin has spoken in favor of veiled transactions as a source of security and not exposing whales or prominent traders.

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