US Lifts Sanctions Against Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash

The US Department of the Treasury has removed sanctions against the fully decentralized cryptocurrency mixer service Tornado Cash.

The US Department of the Treasury on Friday announced that it has removed economic sanctions against the open source, decentralized cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

Describing Tornado Cash as a hub for laundering stolen funds, the US sanctioned the service in 2022, prohibiting US individuals and businesses from using it.

When announcing the sanctions, the Treasury said Tornado Cash had been used to launder over $7 billion in cryptocurrency, including hundreds of millions of dollars that North Korean hackers had stolen from several crypto exchanges.

In August 2023, the US charged (PDF) Tornado Cash co-founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov for allegedly laundering over $1 billion in cryptocurrency using the mixer.

The same month, a Texas judge sided with the Treasury in a lawsuit filed against the department by Tornado Cash users and ...