Tornado Cash News

The sanction of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash in August caused the first major shift, which is accelerating even faster than projected.

Roman Storm, facing charges related to Tornado Cash allegedly facilitating money laundering, has been free on bail following his arrest by U.S. authorities in August.

Roman Storm’s lawyer, Brian Klein, said the developer was released on bail on Aug. 24, the day after the U.S. DOJ announced the charges related to money-laundering and other alleged violations.

Coin Center research director Peter Van Valkenburgh argued that crypto mixer Tornado Cash is an anonymizing software provider, not a money transmitter.

Roman Semenov was placed on OFAC’s sanctioned persons list, and Roman Storm was arrested as the United States continued its crackdown on the crypto mixer.

Competing motions for summary judgment saw a federal judge rule the U.S. Treasury was within its authority to declare Tornado Cash a sanctioned entity.

After almost two years, the stolen 13,556 ETH, worth nearly $60 million at the time, amounted to almost $26.2 million at the time of writing.

The crypto industry advocacy group has placed its support behind Coin Center and its lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury over its Tornado Cash sanctions.

A total of 517,000 token votes favored the proposal, with none opposing it.

According to the filing, the Treasury lacks the authority to prohibit Tornado Cash and transactions associated with it.

A few hours into the hack, to everyone’s surprise, the attacker surprisingly reached out to the Tornado Cash community with a new proposal to supposedly give back governance control.

The advocacy group was joined by the DeFi Education Fund in arguing that the crypto mixer has important social functions and that the sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control could set a dangerous precedent.

The motion is part of a broader effort to restore internet privacy rights for United States citizens.