Tornado Cash Removed from U.S. Sanctions List

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has removed Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service, from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. This decision follows a November 2024 court ruling that found OFAC overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash’s smart contracts, as these codes don’t qualify as “property” under U.S. law. The Treasury announced its intent to delist Tornado Cash on March 18, 2025, finalizing the process on March 21, 2025. However, one of its founders, Roman Semenov, remains sanctioned.

With this update, several Ethereum wallet addresses and the Tornado Cash website have also been removed from the sanctions list. Despite this, Semenov remains sanctioned, though his designation was slightly modified—his alleged cyber-related activities tag was removed, but he is still linked to North Korea-related sanctions.

Tornado Cash was originally blacklisted in August 2022 after authorities accused it of being used to launder over $7 billion in crypto. This included funds from major hacks, such as the $455 million stolen in the Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge attack, $96 million from the Harmony Bridge hack, and $7.8 million from the Nomad hack. Even though Tornado Cash is now off the SDN list, its founders, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, still face legal troubles. Both were charged in August 2023 with money laundering and sanctions violations related to the platform’s operations.

Terron Gold