U.S. government removes sanctions on Tornado Cash

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklisted Tornado Cash in 2022, citing it helped money laundering of cyber-crimes, including more than $455 million stolen by Lazarus Group, a North Korean government-backed hacking group.

On March 21, 2025, the U.S. Treasury has removed Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service, from its sanctions list.

This decision comes after a federal appeals court ruled that Tornado Cash's smart contracts can’t be sanctioned because they aren't owned by any person or group.

Tornado Cash had previously been blacklisted for allegedly helping North Korea’s Lazarus Group hide stolen crypto.

As a result, Americans and U.S.-connected businesses weren’t allowed to use it.

Now, the Treasury has also removed over 100 Ethereum addresses linked to Tornado Cash from its blacklist.

Even though the tool is no longer sanctioned, Roman Storm — one of Tornado Cash’s co-founders — still faces trial in July.

He’s accused of helping create the technology that the Lazarus Group used. His lawyers tried to get the charges dropped, but a judge said the case should continue because the charges relate to helping a sanctioned group, not just the tool itself.

Storm’s lawyer said he was happy about the sanctions being lifted and urged prosecutors to drop the case.

The Treasury says it still worries about North Korea using crypto for illegal activities. In a recent filing, the department warned that removing all sanctions on Tornado Cash could hurt national security.

After the announcement, the price of Tornado Cash’s token (TORN) jumped 31% in one day.