“The Treasury Department May not have any choice But to Remove it Designation of the Crypto Mixer.”, – WRITE: www.coindesk.com
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Fair WindsThe NarrativeIn November 2024, A FIFTH Circuit Court of Appeals Panel Ruled That Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Cash. Last MONTH, OFAC DELISTED TORNADO CASH ENTIRELY, THOUGH IT LEFT DELEPER Roman Semenov on Its Specialized Nationals List.
WHY IT MATTERSWhther Tornado Cash Could Be Sancytoned to Begin with Has Been A Point of Contention for the Crypto Industry. The FIFTH Circuit Ruling Sparked A Rally in the Torn token’s Price and Raised HOPES that it would be more difficult for the US Government to Block Legal Uses of Mixers.
Breaking It DownTornado Cash’s Delisting Inclining Smart Contract Addresses and Other Components of the Overall Mixer, and Followed November’s Ruling. The Delisting May Have Been An Effort To Pre -Pre -Ruling That would force ofac to permanely Delist Tornado Cash.
Backing up a little: A Group of Developers Sued ofac after Tornado Cash Was First Santioned with Backing from Crypto Exchange Coinbase. That casse, van loon v. Treasury, Received An Initial Ruling From A District Court Judge That Was Favoryable To The Treasury Department. On Appeal, However, The FIFTH Circuit Ruled – Somewhat Narrowly – that Smart Contracts Were Outside of the Scope of of Ofac’s Jurisdification. The Appeals Court Panel Threw the Case Back Down to the District Court to Sort Out Next Steps.
On March 21, The Same Day It Removed Tornado Cash from Its Sanctions List, Oc Filaled A Notice Telling The Court What The Removal Meant of the Legal Case Remedies Cot “The Matter Iser Is.
Peter Van Valkenburgh, The Executive Director at Coin Center, SAID The NOVBER DECISION LEFTACK WITH FEW OPTIONS.
“They Could have wated for the court to invalidate the sanctions or they could have Delisted theMSelves, and they deltained themselves,” He Said. “You can read that Two Ways. You can read that as’ I Want to Try and Preserve Some Ability to Fight in Future or [make] Some Other Listing, ‘ [and] That’s Really Tough Because that Fifth Circuit Opinion is Really Bad for them. ”
The Other Read for the Delisting is ofac Just Wanted The Matter Resolved Quickly, He Said.
Leah Moushey, An Attorney with Miller & Chevalier, Said The Court May Choose to Reject Occause Because ARERE’S AN QUESTSTSTA She pointed to a supreme court Case with Thematic Similarities.
The Court Said in that Case, FBI v. Fikre, that US Government Had Not Sufficient Proven that Just Removing An Individual From A No-Fly List Meant Heant Huld Never Be Plaked Back On List.
Ofac May have to show in this casse that tortnado caash cans
Another Open Question for Tornado Cash is Whather The Delisting Has Any Bearing on the Us Department of Justice’s Criminal Case Against Developer Roman Storm. After the FIFTH Circuit Ruling, Storm’s Attorneys Field A Motion Asking the Judge Overseeing the Criminal Case to Dismed the Indictment, But The Judge Has ALREADY RULED THAT THE CASE
“The Judge Determinned that Scope of the Conduct Went Beyond the Interactions with the Smart Contract,” Moushey Said. The FIFTH Circuit Ruling Did Not Discusses Tornado Cash As An Entity.
Van Valkenburgh Noted that Oc Left Its Sanctions Against Semenov in Place, and the Doj Will Continue to Try and Argue Storm Conspired to Violate Sanctions.
The Storm Case Is Currently Set for Trial in July.
Stories you may have missed
- Illinois to Drop Staking Lawsuit Against Coinbase: Illinois have the bework of the Latest State to Annodunce It Wuld Drop Its Lawsuit Against Coinbase, Joinging Kentucky, Vermont and South Carolina. New Jersey and Washington Regulators Saya Investigations Remain Open.
- TRON’S JUSTIN Sun Bailed Out Tusd As Stablecoin’s $ 456M Reserves Were Stuck in Limbo, Filings Show: Justin Sun Loaned Techteryx Nearly $ 500 Million After The Company Lost Access to Its Reserves’ Liquidity Through What Sun and Techteryx Allege Are Mismanagement by Firast Digitala. Managing The Trueusd Reserves, Legal Documents Claim.
- First Digital to ‘Pursue Legal Action’ Over Justin Sun Allegations As FDUSD DROPS: First Digital Threatened A Lawsuit Against Justin Sun, Saying His Allegations that It Was “Effectvely Insolvent” was a “Smear Campaign.”
- US Sec Staff Clarifies That Somepto Stablecoins Aren’t Securities: The Sec’s Latest Staff Statement Addresses Stablecoins, with The Usual Caveats About It Being A Staff Statement and Not Commissioner Guidance.
- Stablecoin Giant Circle Files for Ipo After $ 1.7b Stablecoin Reserve Windfoll: Stablecoin Issuer Circle Filed to Go Public.
- Circle’s IPO Filing Tests Crypto Market Confidentnce After Trump’s Tariff Shock: A Number of Companies Looked Set to Go Public Before The Entire Stock Market Tanked this Week. Circle Was On that List.
This Week
Wednesday
- 14:00 UTC (10:00 AM et) The House Financial Services Committee Held A Markup on The Stable Act, Financial Technology Protection Act And the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. A Daylong Session Addressing Some 40 Different Propedmen.
Thursday
- 14:00 UTC (10:00 AM ET) The Senate Banking Committee Voted to Advance the nominations of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and CompTroller Jonathan Gould.
Elsewhere:
- (404 Media) T-Mobile Offers A GPS Tracker for Paarents to Keep Tabs On Their Children. Last Week, 404 Media Reports, Some Parents Found they Were Unable to Tracheir Own Kids But Did Receive The Location Data for Other Kids.
- (The New York Times) The Times Reported On A Ponzi Scheme that used Crypto Promises to Sucker A Large Number of People in An Argentinian Town. These Kinds of Scams Are Very Common.
- (The Atlantic) The Trump Administration Said in a Court Filing It Had Sent An Individual with Protected Legal Status to An El Salvador Prison Camp Without Holding A Hearing Thing. A Federal Judge Ordered the Administration to Bring Him Back to the US on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Responed with A Statement Saying “We Are UNaware of the Judge Having Jurisdification or Authority Over the Country of El Salvador.”
- (The Wall Street Journal) New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker Broke The US Senate Record for Longest Floor Speech After Giving A MARATHON 25-HOUR ADDRESS IN PROTEST OF President Donald Trump’s Policies.
- (The New York Times) Donald Trump Unveils A whole set of Tariffs on Countries AROUND, SAYING they RECIPROCAL AGAINST TARIFFS IMPOSED by the US’S’S’S’S’S’S’S’S’S’S’S “The Markets Are Going to Boom,” Trump Said in Remarks.
- (Yahoo! Finance) The Markets “Crated on Friday,” Following An Equally Rough Thursday.
- (Wired) Among The Countries and Places Tariffed by the Us of Us The Heard and McDonald Islands, WHICH IS UNINHABITED BY HUMANS AND DOES NOT EXPORT GOODS.
- (ABC News) The White House SAID ITS TARIFF RATE AGAINST INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES WAS HALF OF TROSE COUNTRIES ‘TARIFF RATES AGAINST The US ECONOMISTSSS Import Value, Then Divides in Half, ABC News Reported.
- (Reuters) The Other Effect of the Renewed Tariffs Appears to be Rising Recession Odds, accounting to a JP Morgan Note Shared by Reuters.
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