US Appeals Court allows battle over Tornado Cash sanctions to come to an end

A U.S. appeals court has granted a joint motion to vacate a case between the Treasury Department and Coin Center over the agency's sanctioning of crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

In a court filing from last week, the clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said that the motion would be granted, ending the lawsuit between the two.

"This is the official end to our court battle over the statutory authority behind the TC sanctions," said Peter Van Valkenburgh, executive director at Coin Center, on Monday in a post on X. "The government was not interested in moving forward and defending their dangerously overbroad interpretation of sanctions laws."

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, effectively barring people in the U.S. and firms looking to operate in the U.S. from engaging in financial interactions with it. A U.S. federal appeals court later said that the department had overstepped its authority in doing so.

The Treasury Department then removed sanctions against the crypto mixer in March.

In the joint motion last week, the government said that removing the sanctions "moots" the appeal.

"The government’s view is that OFAC’s rescission of the designation moots this appeal. Plaintiffs’ view is that this appeal will become moot after the Texas judgment becomes final and unappealable," they said.