{"id":9257,"date":"2025-01-23T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T11:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9257"},"modified":"2025-01-23T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T11:01:35","slug":"crypto-privacy-victory-us-court-reverses-sanctions-against-tornado-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9257","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Privacy Victory: US Court Reverses Sanctions Against Tornado Cash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A US Court has overturned the Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions imposed on crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The move comes after the Court of Appeals ruled in November that OFAC had overstepped its authority.<\/p>\n

Crypto Privacy Scores Major Win<\/h2>\n

In a new victory for the crypto industry, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas\u00a0reversed<\/a> the OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash on Monday for allegedly \u201cfacilitating\u201d money laundering.<\/p>\n

OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022 for \u201cfailing to impose effective controls\u201d that prevented malicious actors from laundering funds through the crypto mixer.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury Department argued that the decentralized protocol was used to launder over $7 billion worth of crypto since 2019, including $455 million linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.<\/p>\n

On November 26, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled<\/a> that OFAC had \u201coverstepped its congressionally defined authority\u201d by sanctioning the crypto mixing protocol. As reported by Bitcoinist, the court concluded that Tornado Cash\u2019s immutable smart contracts can\u2019t be classified as \u201cproperty\u201d under federal law, placing them outside the reach of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).<\/p>\n

The court filing, dated January 21, 2025, reads, \u201cIt is ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the district court is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the district court for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion of this court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"crypto\"<\/p>\n

Attorney and Executive Director at CoinCenter Peter Van Valkenburgh explained<\/a> that yesterday\u2019s court ruling is \u201cgood news though not the end of the story.\u201d According to the post, the publication of the November opinion and mandate, and remand to the district court for remedies, should \u201cforeclose the possibility of en banc review by Circuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Van Valkenburgh noted that the government could still appeal to the Supreme Court, although he considers it unlikely at this point, concluding that:<\/p>\n

\n

District Court will still need to decide whether the remedy is nationwide vacatur (anyone in US can use immutable contracts) or more limited relief (plaintiffs can use contracts and other parties may need to bring their own suits). Nationwide vacatur is what we should be rooting for.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2018No Man Left Behind\u2019<\/h2>\n

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin celebrated the news: \u201cTornado Cash itself won an important case today.\u201d Buterin has advocated<\/a> for crypto privacy, using protocols like Railgun and stating that \u201cPrivacy is normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he commented on the recently issued pardon<\/a> of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Buterin stated that no man should be \u201cleft behind,\u201d suggesting that Tornado Cash\u2019s co-founder Roman Storm and developer Alexey Pertsev should be next.<\/p>\n

\"crypto\"<\/p>\n

Following the OFAC sanctions, Pertsev was detained in the Netherlands in August 2022 and is serving a 5-year sentence after being found guilty of money laundering by the\u00a0s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal in May 2024.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Storm was arrested in Washington in August 2023 after being charged with money laundering and sanctions violations. The crypto mixer\u2019s co-founder pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial has been pushed<\/a> to April 2025.<\/p>\n

Storm responded to Buterin\u2019s message, thanking the Ethereum founder for his help to him and Pertsev over the past two and half years.<\/p>\n

\"crypto,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US Court has overturned the Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions imposed on crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The move comes after the Court of Appeals ruled in November that OFAC had overstepped its authority. Crypto Privacy Scores Major Win In a new victory for the crypto industry, the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-9257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}