U.S. Treasury Delists Tornado Cash from Sanctions List, Triggering 100% Gains for TORN

On 21 March, the U.S. Treasury delisted Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer that hides transaction trails and recipients, from its sanctions list. Market insiders celebrated this as a regulatory win for privacy-focused technology.

Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong reacted to the update:
> “No one wants to see bad folks use crypto. But privacy is an important feature for many law abiding citizens, and you can’t sanction open source code (it’s a free speech issue). Glad to see this get fixed.”

Tornado Cash’s Alleged North Korea Links

In August 2022, the Biden Administration sanctioned Tornado Cash (TC) due to alleged links to North Korean actors laundering billions of dollars stolen from the cryptocurrency space. The founders and developers, including Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm, faced indictments.

Industry figures criticized the logic of prosecuting platform creators over bad actors. A U.S. court ruled last November that the OFAC overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash, but the platform remained blacklisted until this recent update.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated:
> “Securing the digital asset industry from abuse by North Korea and other illicit actors is essential to establishing U.S. leadership and ensuring that the American people can benefit from financial innovation and inclusion.”

Armstrong expressed readiness to assist the government in tackling the “0.1% of illicit activity in crypto” as per U.S. laws. Following the delisting, Balaji Srinivasan, former Coinbase CTO, urged for pardons and restitution for Tornado Cash’s founders:
> “Privacy wins. Tornado Cash is legal. Now, Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev should be immediately freed, pardoned, and reimbursed by the state for their invalid prosecution.”

Roman Storm hailed the delisting as a ‘victory’ for privacy technology and TORN, the native token of TC. Following the announcement, TORN surged by over 100%, rising from $8 to nearly $16; however, most gains had been lost by the time of writing.