TechFlow reports, according to court documents, six Coinbase employees—Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch—have brought the case challenging the U.S. Treasury's sanctioning of Tornado Cash to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which will rehear the case.
Earlier, in September 2022, it was reported that six individuals, including two Coinbase employees, filed a lawsuit against the Treasury’s decision to sanction Tornado Cash in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, with Coinbase providing financial support for the litigation.
In April 2023, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment.
In August 2023, The Block reported that in the Coinbase-supported lawsuit over Tornado Cash sanctions, District Court Judge Robert Pitman filed a document in the U.S. District Court indicating an order to deny in part the plaintiffs’—Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch—motion for summary judgment. The court ruled that Tornado Cash qualifies as an association in the ordinary sense, and therefore constitutes an entity that can be designated under OFAC regulations.
