U.S. Court Ends Tornado Cash Legal Dispute, Marking Win for Coin Center

A legal clash between Coin Center and the U.S. Treasury Department over sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash has officially come to an end, following a joint decision to dismiss the case.

According to a filing from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the court granted the motion last week, bringing closure to a high-profile legal battle that had challenged the government’s authority to sanction the crypto privacy protocol.

Treasury retreats from sanctions defense

Coin Center, a nonprofit focused on cryptocurrency policy, had taken legal action after the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022. The sanctions prohibited U.S. citizens and businesses from interacting with the protocol, sparking criticism that the move was an overreach of regulatory power.

In a post on X, Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh welcomed the dismissal. “This is the official end to our court battle over the statutory authority behind the TC sanctions,” he wrote. “The government was not interested in moving forward and defending their dangerously overbroad interpretation of sanctions laws.”

Sanctions quietly lifted in March

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department quietly reversed course and lifted its sanctions against Tornado Cash in March 2025. This decision came after mounting legal pressure and a ruling from a federal appeals court that suggested the agency had acted beyond its legal limits in enforcing the ban.

The case had become a flashpoint in the broader debate over how U.S. authorities approach decentralized technologies and financial privacy. Critics warned that sanctioning open-source protocols could set a dangerous precedent, effectively criminalizing code.

With the case now dismissed, crypto advocates view the outcome as a victory for digital rights and the protection of permissionless software development in the U.S.

Kosta Gushterov

Kosta has been working in the crypto industry for over 4 years. He strives to present different perspectives on a given topic and enjoys the sector for its transparency and dynamism. In his work, he focuses on balanced coverage of events and developments in the crypto space, providing information to his readers from a neutral perspective.