Blockchain Association files support in suit to lift Tornado Cash sanctions

The Blockchain Association has thrown contemporary support behind six plaintiffs suing america Treasury Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) over its sanctions on the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

In a Nov. 20 amicus curiae brief to a U.S. appellate court docket, the crypto advocacy group argued OFAC’s determination to sanction the privateness protocol was not solely illegal however exceeded its statutory authority and was each “arbitrary and capricious” — opposite to the U.S. Structure.

It’s the second amicus transient filed by the Blockchain Association supporting a bunch of Tornado Cash customers appealing a lower court’s ruling that upheld OFAC’s determination to add the cryptocurrency mixer to its listing of sanctioned entities.

In the present day we filed an amicus transient in the fifth Circuit attraction of Van Loon v. Treasury relating to OFAC’s sanctions in opposition to Tornado Cash.

Learn Senior Counsel @MTCoppel‘s thread under for extra. https://t.co/1pmSAt1Bds https://t.co/c5ScaTDr9N pic.twitter.com/e9ySvcKdeM

— Blockchain Association (@BlockchainAssn) November 20, 2023

Blockchain Association senior counsel Marisa Coppel emphasised in a Nov. 20 statement that OFAC wants to concentrate on sanctioning dangerous actors moderately than outright banning instruments, which she claimed it has no authority over.

“OFAC should see Tornado Cash for what it’s: a device that can be utilized by anybody,” Coppel mentioned. “Moderately than sanctioning a device with a lawful objective, OFAC ought to stay targeted on the dangerous actors that misuse such instruments.”

“OFAC’s motion units a harmful new precedent that drastically exceeds their authority and jeopardizes law-abiding People’ proper to privateness.”

In its transient, the Blockchain Association steered OFAC ought to act inside the bounds of the legislation by in search of approval from Congress to ban crypto mixers comparable to Tornado Cash.

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“The correct treatment is to search laws from Congress that would supply supplemental authority in the uniquely decentralized digital asset context — not to improperly stretch its present authorities,”  it mentioned.

“Such a power-grab could be a slippery slope that would threaten all method of internet-based instruments which have heretofore been freely out there.”

The Blockchain Association has lengthy held that Tornado Cash has no proprietor or operator and may operate robotically with out human intervention or help.

5/ OFAC’s authority solely extends to individuals or property…the Tornado Cash software program is neither.

There isn’t a proprietor.
No operator.
It features autonomously.
And immutably.

— Marisa Tashman Coppel (@MTCoppel) November 20, 2023

OFAC first sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022. It alleged that people and teams had used the mixer to launder greater than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies since 2019, together with the $455 million stolen by the North Korea-affiliated Lazarus Group.

Crypto trade Coinbase also backed the suit, pledging to

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