TechFlow reported on January 23, according to Bitcoin.com, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Texas ruled to overturn sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixing platform Tornado Cash, determining that the U.S. Department of the Treasury had overstepped its authority. The court found that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) lacked legal basis in classifying immutable smart contracts as "property," since they cannot be owned or controlled by any party.
Previously, in August 2022, OFAC sanctioned the platform for allegedly aiding money laundering by North Korea's Lazarus Group. This ruling could limit the government's ability to impose sanctions on decentralized technologies, and the case will now be remanded to the district court for further proceedings.
