The US Treasury just got served—again. A Texas federal judge has ruled that the Treasury Department’s sanctions against crypto mixer Tornado Cash were straight-up unlawful. And here’s the kicker: they can’t try the same stunt again.
On April 28, Judge Robert Pitman of the Austin federal court dropped the hammer on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), saying it’s now “permanently enjoined from enforcing” its sanctions against Tornado Cash. Translation? No rematch.
The drama dates back to August 2022, when OFAC slapped Tornado Cash onto its infamous SDN list, accusing it of laundering funds for North Korea’s Lazarus Group. But Tornado’s users, led by Joseph Van Loon, clapped back with a lawsuit, claiming OFAC had gone full cowboy—adding immutable smart contract addresses to a list designed for people.
OFAC tried to weasel out in March, saying the case was “moot” since they had already pulled Tornado Cash off the list. Not so fast, said the court. In fact, the Fifth Circuit had already reversed a lower court's earlier ruling, siding with Tornado users and telling OFAC to chill.
Now, with this amended final ruling, the Treasury is officially locked out. No more sanctioning, no more blacklisting. Game over—for now.
Meanwhile, the heat’s still on elsewhere
The DeFi Education Fund fired off a petition on April 28 to crypto policy chief David Sacks, urging the White House to drop criminal charges against Tornado co-founder Roman Storm. He’s still set for trial in July over claims of helping launder $1B through the protocol.
Critics say the DOJ is trying to punish developers for how people use open-source code. Their argument? “Absurd” and “chilling” for U.S. crypto innovation.
OFAC might be out of the ring, but the fight for dev freedom is just warming up.
HODL Team
Disclaimer: All materials on this site are for informational purposes only. None of the material should be interpreted as investment advice. Please note that despite the nature of much of the material created and hosted on this website, HODL FM is not a financial reference resource and the opinions of authors and other contributors are their own and should not be taken as financial advice. If you require advice of this sort, HODL FM strongly recommends contacting a qualified industry professional.
