Tornado Cash sanctions case comes to an end, $TORN surges 14%

The long-running legal battle between crypto advocacy group Coin Centre and the US Treasury Department over the sanctioning of Tornado Cash has been officially concluded, bringing a dramatic chapter in crypto regulation to a close. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit dismissed the appeal filed by Coin Centre, ending a case that questioned the Treasury’s authority to impose sanctions on the Ethereum-based crypto mixer. The court’s dismissal follows an earlier removal of Tornado Cash from the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals list, a move that effectively rendered the appeal moot according to government lawyers. Government drops sanctions, court ends the case The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, accusing it of facilitating illicit financial activity, including laundering funds linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. In response, Coin Centre filed a lawsuit arguing that OFAC had overstepped its statutory authority and applied sanctions too broadly to decentralised software infrastructure. While a district court rejected Coin Centre’s constitutional arguments in November 2023, ruling in favour of OFAC , the group persisted with its appeal in the Eleventh Circuit. However, earlier this year, a separate federal court in Texas ordered OFAC to rescind its sanctions against Tornado Cash, and the Treasury opted not to challenge that ruling. The Treasury then argued that the Coin Centre appeal was unnecessary since the original sanctions had already been withdrawn, leading to a joint motion by both parties to dismiss the case. Caution remains despite Coin Centre claiming victory Following the court decision, Peter Van Valkenburgh, the executive director of Coin Centre, announced the dismissal of X , framing it as a significant moment in their battle against what he called a dangerously expansive view of sanctions law. Valkenburgh emphasised that the government showed no desire to defend its position, suggesting it lacked confidence in its legal standing under congressional authority. While Coin Centre welcomed the outcome, it acknowledged that finality will only be reached once the Texas court’s decision becomes unappealable. Tornado Cash developers are still facing criminal charges Despite the court victory on the sanctions front, Tornado Cash’s developers remain entangled in serious legal jeopardy. Roman Storm, one of the co-founders of the mixer, is set to face a criminal trial in New York federal court within days, where he is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmission service. Storm has maintained that he and his team did not knowingly facilitate criminal activity and has yet to confirm whether he will testify in his own defence. His co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in May 2024 and sentenced to 64 months in prison, though he is now under house arrest with electronic monitoring. A third developer, Roman Semenov, also named in the US indictment, remains at large and is actively evading law enforcement. TORN coin surged on the dismissal news Following the announcement of the dismissal, Tornado Cash’s native token, TORN, experienced a brief price surge, rising over 14% to hit $10.55 before settling back to around $9.47. The token’s performance has mirrored broader trends in the crypto market, with a remarkable 308% gain recorded year-to-date, drawing comparisons to XRP’s rally over the same period. Despite the legal uncertainties still surrounding the project’s developers, the end of the Coin Centre appeal has given traders and users a clearer sense of regulatory direction. While the sanctions chapter has closed, the upcoming trial of Roman Storm promises to keep Tornado Cash in the spotlight, as the crypto community closely watches how US courts interpret developer responsibility in decentralised systems. The post Tornado Cash sanctions case comes to an end, $TORN surges 14% appeared first on Invezz

Source: Invezz