Texas Court Permanently Bans Treasury's OFAC Sanctions on Tornado Cash

JH Kim

Summary

A Texas court has ruled to permanently ban sanctions on Tornado Cash.
The ruling is based on a previous appellate court decision that the Treasury's OFAC sanctions were an overreach of authority and illegal.
The Texas court declared that OFAC's sanctions are null and no longer disputable.

A Texas court has ruled that the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash are illegal, permanently prohibiting the agency from sanctioning this service.

According to cryptocurrency media outlet CoinDesk on the 29th (local time), late last year, a U.S. appellate court ruled that the Treasury's sanctions on Tornado Cash were an overreach of authority and therefore illegal.

However, at the time, there was ongoing controversy as the possibility was raised that Tornado Cash could be blacklisted again depending on OFAC's sanction methods.

As a result, an additional lawsuit was filed arguing that all sanctions should be deemed illegal and nullified based on the appellate court's ruling.

In this ruling, the Texas court stated, "This case is no longer disputable," and "OFAC's sanctions on Tornado Cash are illegal, and the agency cannot sanction this service again in the future."