On January 21, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, imposed by the OFAC in 2022.
The case has been sent back to the District Court for the Western District of Texas for further proceedings in light of the appellate decision.
Earlier, the panel of judges ruled that OFAC had overstepped its authority and deemed the sanctions against the service “illegitimate.”
Despite this, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev remains in custody on money laundering charges. Representatives of the crypto industry hope that the lifting of sanctions will positively impact his trial.
Following the news, the price of the mixer’s utility token TORN surged by 200%. At the time of writing, it is trading around $25, according to TradingView.
Authorities report that over $7 billion in cryptocurrency was laundered through Tornado Cash. More than $455 million of this is linked to the activities of the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.
In May 2024, a Dutch court found mixer developer Alexey Pertsev guilty of laundering $1.2 billion and sentenced him to 64 months in prison.
Money laundering and sanctions violation charges in the U.S. have also been filed against Tornado Cash co-founders Roman Semenov and Roman Storm. The latter, at the end of 2024, demanded a review of the rejected motion to dismiss the case.