The Treasury Department has been banned from resuming sanctions on cryptocurrency tornado cash, a U.S. federal court ruled. The decision comes after the Ministry of Finance claims the case’s attempt, after deleting the agreement specifically designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Nationals (SDNs).
Treasury bans reimagining tornado cash sanctions
Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas granted a major victory in cryptocurrency privacy and banned the same sanctions on cryptocurrency shelf after ruling that the U.S. Treasury’s actions against tornado cash were “illegal”.
In August 2022, OFAC approved allegedly not implementing effective controls to prevent malicious actors from passing the agreement worth more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies since 2019, including $455 million from North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.
US District Court for the Western District of Texas's amended final ruling. Source: Paul Grewal on X
In January 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Western Texas District overturned OFAC sanctions on tornado cash after a November 2024 court ruling determined that the U.S. Treasury Department exceeded its authorization by approving the platform.
One month ago, OFAC cluttered Tornado Cash and nearly 100 Ethereum’s SDN list related to Ethereum’s Crypto mixer. However, the U.S. Treasury Department faces a rebound over claims to the final court ruling on the lawsuit, and after it stands out from the list of sanctions, the final ruling on the lawsuit is meaningless.
Coinbase’s CLO Paul Grewal criticized the Treasury’s actions, saying it did not guarantee that it would not reposition the cryptocurrency shelf in the future. Additionally, the agency said it will continue to monitor any transactions that could benefit malicious actors or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
In the revised final judgment, the court ruled: “The case is not without debate because the issue can be repeated when evading review,” he noted that the U.S. Treasury Department attempted to prompt by changing the relevant facts “through additional proxy actions” rather than “simply put forward a short for the response to the final judgment authorized by the Fifth Circuit.” ”
Defendants do not recommend that they will not approve tornado cash, they may seek to “replay”[] Exactly the same [designation]“In the future (…). Rather than acknowledging that the Fifth Circuit’s orders require to push the tornado cash out, they say they exercise “discretion” in the decision based on more general policy and legal considerations. They will publicly declare that they will continue to be involved in the economic sanctions in the future.
As a result, Judge Pitman approved the plaintiff’s request for summary judgment and ordered “the defendant’s designation was illegal and therefore was put on hold and the defendant was permanently prohibited from executing it.”
The crypto privacy struggle continues
The court also acknowledged that the tornado cash case involved “sensitivity issues of safety and economic regulation” and that the U.S. Treasury Department insisted that the Fifth Circuit ruling was seen as a “narrow” holding to avoid limiting the agency’s future regulation of similar assets and technologies.
Nevertheless, the judge said: “How the ruling of the Fifth Circuit will be interpreted when reviewing the ruling of other agencies, when reviewing the ruling of other agencies, is not a question before this Court,” and limits “to merely a partial decision directed by the 5th Circuit to support the plaintiff’s partial summary judgment.”
It is worth noting that the fight for crypto privacy tools and open source developers continues as Tornado co-founder Rome Storm and developer Alexey Pertsev prepares for their legal defense. He was convicted about a year ago and was preparing to appeal his five-year prison sentence in the Netherlands, while Storm, if convicted, faces up to 45 years in prison.
The Defi Education Fund recently sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Crypto Czar, David Sacks, urging the White House to end the Justice Department’s war on open source developers.
The letter, signed by multiple industry leaders, notes that attempts to put software developers in criminal responsibility for the way third parties use their code will set a terrible precedent and “freeze” technological innovations in the United States that will oppose Trump’s commitment to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet.”
Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $94,943 in the 1D chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured images from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com
Editing process For Bitcoin experts, focus on thorough research, accurate and impartial content. We adhere to strict procurement standards and each page is diligently evaluated by our top technical experts and experienced editorial team. This process ensures the integrity, relevance and value of our content to our readers.
