The sanctions guard of the United States Department of the Treasury eliminated Tornado cash from his Global Black List on Friday.
The cryptography mixing tool has been accused of helping the stolen funds from the lazarus group of North Korea of its various hacks and robberies, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States, which means that no person in the United States or no one who does business with the United States could participate financially, several times. However, a Federal Court of Appeals ruled last November that Ofac could not sanction the intelligent contracts of Tornado Cash because they were not the “property” of any foreign citizen.
“We remain deeply concerned about the important campaign of piracy and money laundering sponsored by the State aimed at stealing, acquiring and deploying digital assets for the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea (RPDC) and the Kim regime,” said a press release from the United States Treasury Department.
Another launch of Ofac lists more than 100 directions of Ethereum (ETH) that are being eliminated from the list of specially designated nationals, which is the registration of the treasure to maintain its blacklist.
Roman Storm, one of the co -founders of Tornado Cash, faces a criminal trial this July on his supposed role to develop intelligent contracts and protocols. Another developer was accused but has not yet been arrested. After the November ruling of the fifth circuit, Storm’s lawyers presented a motion requesting the court to reconsider their previous decision to deny the dismissal of the charges against them. That motion was beaten in February, with Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) arguing that, if Tornado’s cash was subject to sanctions “does not affect the sanctions that the alleged defendant conspired to violate (those in the Lazarus group).”
Storm’s lawyer Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP, told Coindesk that he was “very happy” to see the sanctions against the eliminated tornado cash.
“Now SDNY prosecutors should similarly reconsider their unfortunate decision to accuse our client and dismiss his case against him,” Klein added.
In a statement, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, said that the United States needs to “ensure the digital asset industry of North Korea and other illicit actors.”
In a presentation of the court on Monday, referred to in the Treasury in Friday’s statement, the Treasury Department suggested that it would not eliminate the sanctions completely.
“Disaging the designation of tornadoes cash in its entirety could have significantly ‘harmful consequences’ for national security and the application of the law,” said the presentation.
The torn file jumped 40% in the minutes after the Treasury statement.
Stephen Alpher and Cheyenne Ligon contributed reports.
Update (March 21, 2025, 15:05 UTC): Add additional details.
