Tornado Cash Sanctions Lifted: TORN Token Surges 60%
In a significant turnaround, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer. The decision, announced in August 2023, has sparked a surge in the value of the platform's native token, TORN.
Tornado Cash, which uses a mixing process to obscure the trail of cryptocurrency funds, was initially sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in August 2022. The service pools source funds, distributes them randomly, and uses varied transaction amounts to make tracing difficult.
A U.S. appeals court recently ruled that Tornado Cash's smart contracts do not constitute 'property' eligible for sanctions. Following this ruling, the Treasury Department confirmed the removal of several Ethereum-based smart contract addresses linked to Tornado Cash from its blacklist.
With Tornado Cash's removal from the sanctions list, its native token, TORN, has experienced a significant boost in value, surging by approximately 60%. As of March 21, TORN's market capitalization stands at around $73 million, with a fully diluted valuation nearing $140 million. This development signals a shift in the U.S. government's stance towards cryptocurrency mixers.
