TORN Responds with a Surge of Over 5%! The U.S. Treasury Drops Appeal, 'Tornado Cash Sanctions Case' Declared Over

On July 3, the U.S. Federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that since both parties agreed to terminate the appeals process, the lawsuit regarding the sanctions dispute between the cryptocurrency advocacy organization Coin Center and the U.S. Department of the Treasury concerning the mixing protocol Tornado Cash is officially withdrawn.

This lawsuit initially stemmed from Coin Center's judicial challenge against the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The organization believes that the U.S. government's sanctions against Tornado Cash exceeded the reasonable bounds of the sanctions mandate.

According to the latest court ruling, since OFAC earlier this year revoked the sanctions against Tornado Cash, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that "smart contracts cannot be subject to sanctions," there is no longer a need to continue the original lawsuit, and the court has officially dismissed the case.

After the news broke, the price of TORN surged over 5.5%, rising from an intraday low of $9.16 to $9.67.

In fact, as early as June this year, Coin Center and the U.S. Department of the Treasury jointly submitted a motion to the court to revoke the Texas district court's ruling from April, which determined that OFAC's initial sanctions procedure against Tornado Cash was illegal and permanently prohibited OFAC from taking further sanctions measures against Tornado Cash.

Both parties believe that since OFAC voluntarily removed Tornado Cash from the sanctions list in March this year, and the Texas district court ruling took effect on June 28, with the U.S. government agreeing not to appeal that ruling, the original basis for the lawsuit no longer exists. Therefore, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals should vacate the district court's ruling and remand the case to the original trial court, instructing it to formally dismiss the lawsuit.

Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh posted on social media platform X, stating:

The lawsuit surrounding the legal basis for the Tornado Cash sanctions has officially come to a close. The government has chosen not to defend that overly expansive and risky interpretation of the sanctions law, and has no intention of continuing to contest, meaning this legal battle is declared over.

Although Tornado Cash has been removed from the U.S. sanctions list, development team members Roman Storm and Roman Semenov still face money laundering and other criminal charges brought by U.S. authorities, with Roman Storm's criminal trial scheduled to open on July 14 in New York.

"TORN Responds with a Surge of Over 5%! The U.S. Treasury Drops Appeal, 'Tornado Cash Sanctions Case' Declared Over" This article was first published on (Blockke).