A judge just ruled that Tornado Cash is to be removed from the OFAC sanctions list.
The court found that Tornado Cash smart contracts do not constitute property, finding that Tornado Cash software is not covered by the IEEPA's.
The court found that while "OFAC’s concerns with illicit foreign actors laundering funds are undeniably legitimate," "perhaps Congress will update IEEPA [...] to target modern technologies like crypto-mixing software."
"Until then," the court found, "we hold that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the “property” of a foreign national or entity, meaning they cannot be blocked under IEEPA, and OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority."
This is hugely good news for anyone developing privacy software and will likely have a positive impact on Roman Storm's trial, where it is debated whether the court may criminally charge the developers of software.
s/o to all the people that fought for our right to privacy on this ❤️
(this is a developing story – we'll update this article as we go through the information available): https://www.therage.co/fifth-circuit-lifts-tornado-cash-sanctions/
