The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida issued a decision concerning the designation of Tornado Cash by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The case, identified as Case 3:22-cv-20375-TKW-ZCB, revolved around the designation of Tornado Cash under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The IEEPA authorizes the president to declare national emergencies to handle unusual foreign threats to the United States’ national security, foreign policy, or economy. Utilizing this authority, the president had declared national emergencies concerning malicious foreign cyber-enabled activities and North Korea’s nuclear missile program.
Tornado Cash, a service utilizing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to provide a degree of anonymity to transactions, was designated by OFAC on August 8, 2022, and later re-designated on November 8, 2022. This designation was challenged by the…
