Filter Mixer Withdrawals by Denomination, Not USD

Core idea

When matching a mixer’s withdrawals against known deposits (for example, hunting the Tornado Cash withdrawals that pair with a subject’s deposits), filter the withdrawal list by TOKEN AMOUNT / pool denomination (e.g. exactly 100 ETH), never by a narrow USD band. Fixed-denomination pools pay out a fixed token amount, but the USD value of that amount drifts with price. If the token appreciated between deposit and withdrawal, an equal-denomination withdrawal is worth MORE in USD than the matching deposit, so a tight USD filter silently drops those withdrawals from view and you wrongly conclude that less came out than went in.

When to use

Any time you set a value filter on an explorer/analytics tool (Arkham, MetaSleuth, etc.) while enumerating a mixer pool’s withdrawals, or more generally when reconciling in-vs-out across a fixed-denomination service. Filter by the pool’s denomination amount; if you must use USD, widen the band well beyond the deposit value.

Example

CASE-2026-002: the 100 ETH Tornado withdrawals showed ~$170.6K each while the matching 100 ETH deposits were ~$169.69K (ETH ticked up in between). A USD filter capped near the deposit value hid the withdrawals and nearly caused a 300 ETH reuse cluster (three 100 ETH withdrawals to one reused address) to be missed. Switching the filter to the 100 ETH denomination surfaced the full set.

Related

How Blockchain Analysis Detects Mixing Activity, Case: Tornado Cash Round-Trip Resolved by Address Reuse, Mixing Obfuscation Techniques