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\u2019s authority to sanction the crypto privacy protocol.<\/p>\n
Coin Center, a nonprofit focused on cryptocurrency policy, had taken legal action after the Treasury\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh welcomed the dismissal. \u201cThis is the official end to our court battle over the statutory authority behind the TC sanctions,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe government was not interested in moving forward and defending their dangerously overbroad interpretation of sanctions laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocrime"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n