On Nov. 26, 2024, in what has been deemed a win for open-source technology, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling in Van Loon v. United States Dep’t of the Treasury, holding that OFAC overstepped its authority under IEEPA when it sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022.
On Oct. 11, 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Inc. had agreed to settle $53 million total in fines over allegations it violated sanctions and anti-money-laundering laws. The fines come after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) conducted parallel investigations into Bittrex’s activities.
On Aug. 8, 2022, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed economic sanctions on Tornado Cash, a popular cryptocurrency mixing service that allows customers to obscure the original source of virtual currency transactions by “mixing” multiple transactions and then redistributing them. While mixing may have legitimate benefits in some transactions,