{"id":68503,"date":"2022-10-13T09:18:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T06:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=68503"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:26:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:26:03","slug":"coin-center-sues-u-s-treasury-over-tornado-cash-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/coin-center-sues-u-s-treasury-over-tornado-cash-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Coin Center sues U.S. Treasury over Tornado Cash sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.coincenter.org\/app\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1-Complaint-Coin-Center-10-12-22.pdf\\\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its <span data-descr=\\\"Office of Foreign Assets Control\\\" class=\\\"old_tooltip\\\">OFAC<\/span>. In its view, sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer infringe Americans&#8217; rights.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>Coin Center asserts that private individuals have legitimate grounds to use privacy-enhancing transaction tools. According to the filing, OFAC&#8217;s actions deprive them of the ability to \u201cconduct legitimate activity with a certain degree of anonymity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Coin Center, the filing names U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and OFAC Director Andrea Gacki as defendants. The plaintiffs also include software developer Patrick O&#8217;Sullivan, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman, and an unnamed rights advocate.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>According to Hoffman, he received a small amount of funds from Tornado Cash addresses and is now required to file reports confirming that he is not engaged in criminal activity.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">I\u2019m suing the Department of Tresury!<\/p>\n<p>I got dusted from <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TornadoCash?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@TornadoCash<\/a>, and now every year of my life I am FORCED file a report reaffirming that I\u2019m not a criminal. <\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t intend to waste my time like that. <\/p>\n<p>David Hoffman vs Janet Yellen <\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s dance <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/GVCMuzvpEH\\\">pic.twitter.com\/GVCMuzvpEH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DavidHoffman.bedrock \ud83e\udd87\ud83d\udd0a\ud83c\udff4 (@TrustlessState) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TrustlessState\/status\/1580253035804372993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">October 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m suing the Department of the Treasury. I got dusted from Tornado Cash and now I am forced to file a report every year reaffirming that I am not a criminal. I do not intend to waste my time like that. David Hoffman vs Janet Yellen. Let\u2019s dance,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>On 8 August 2022, OFAC <a href=\\\"https:\/\/forklog.news\/ethereum-mikser-tornado-cash-popal-pod-sanktsii-ssha\/\\\">added<\/a> the Tornado Cash site, along with related 39 Ethereum- and 6 USDC-addresses to the sanctions list on suspicion of laundering more than $7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>On 12 August, Dutch authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/in-amsterdam-authorities-arrest-alleged-tornado-cash-developer\">arrested<\/a> the developer of the Tornado Cash service, Alexey Pertsev. The court <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tornado-cash-developer-remanded-in-custody-for-two-months\">kept<\/a> him in custody until at least the end of October.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>The community criticised the regulator&#8217;s decision. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell called the sanctions against Tornado Cash unconstitutional, while TRM Labs analysts described it as a compliance challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Representative Tom Emmer also spoke on the situation. He argued that the restrictions on the mixer threaten privacy and innovation. He called on Yellen to explain OFAC\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in September 2022, Coinbase backed a class-action suit against the U.S. Treasury over Tornado Cash sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\\n\\n\\n\\n<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog\u2019s Bitcoin news in our Telegram \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It argues that sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer infringe Americans&#8217; rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1510,1314,1490],"class_list":["post-68503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-coin-center","tag-tornado-cash","tag-us-treasury"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"21","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68505,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68503\/revisions\/68505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}