On Friday, March 21, 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department announced to remove Tornado Cash from its global blacklist. Tornado Cash has been widely used by people in the crypto space, mainly as a mixer.
The mixer tool was previously accused of helping North Korea’s Lazarus Group to launder stolen funds from hacks and thefts. Because of this, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the mixer. This meant that US citizens and individuals conducting business in the country were not permitted to use it.
OFAC Sanction on Tornado Cash
Last November, sanctions from OFAC against Tornado Cash were challenged in an ongoing debate. The controversy was between the decision of the US Treasury Department and whether it had the right to target the mixer with its association with criminals vs technology. Additionally, OFAC could not prove that the tool was a part or ‘property’ of a foreign national. According to a US Court of Appeal for the 5th Circuit ruling,
“Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity”
Not only this, but OFAC is in the process of removing more than 100 Ethereum addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals list.
Criminal Charges on Co-Founder
Roman Storm, who is one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash, is scheduled to face trial this July. He was faced with criminal charges after being a part of developing Tornado Cash’s smart contracts. His lawyers have filed a motion to revise the decision to dismiss the charges against Storm.
The decision to remove sanctions comes after the change in administration under President Trump. He has heavily changed Washington’s perspective and its stance on the overall cryptocurrency industry. For many years, the tool served as the default platform for ransomware gangs and hackers to launder stolen funds. Tornado Cash was the perfect place for cashing out. However, even with the sanctions in place, Tornado Cash has continued to operate. Prosecutors estimate that the mixer tool has laundered over $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency over 36 different hacks.
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