US government to be sued for blocking cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash

Representatives of the Coin Center research and legal center will sue the US government for blocking the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer, as the researchers believe the authorities' actions are unlawful.

According to Coin Center Executive Director Jerry Brito, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) violated the constitutional right of Americans and «crossed all borders» by imposing sanctions on the Tornado Cash crypto service. According to human rights activists, the ban on the use of Tornado Cash alone is unfair, because the platform (unlike the Blender mixer) is open source and decentralized, so Tornado Cash does not belong to a specific person or organization.

It seems that Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, would agree with the Coin Center representatives in absentia, as he recently stated that he used the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer to help Ukraine — Buterin sent donations for Ukrainians in digital assets.

As a reminder, on August 8, the US imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash — the US Treasury Department banned American citizens and businesses from using the platform’s services. The cryptocurrency mixer was accused of laundering stolen cryptocurrency. A few days ago, law enforcement agencies detained the alleged developer of Tornado Cash in Amsterdam and immediately held a court hearing. The developer of the mixer is suspected of laundering stolen cryptocurrencies and collaborating with criminals.