The Blockchain Association has given new support to six plaintiffs suing the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over its sanctions on cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
In amicus curiae November 20 briefly The cryptocurrency advocacy group argued to the U.S. Court of Appeals that OFAC’s decision to approve the privacy agreement was not only unlawful but exceeded its statutory authority and was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
This is the second amicus brief filed by the Blockchain Association in support of a group of Tornado Cash users appealing a lower court ruling upholding OFAC’s decision to add the cryptocurrency mixer to its list of sanctioned entities.
Today, we filed an amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit appeal of Van Loon v. Treasury Department regarding OFAC’s sanctions against Tornado Cash.
Read Senior Legal Counsel @MT KopelLearn more about the topics below. pic.twitter.com/e9ySvcKdeM
— Blockchain Association (@BlockchainAssn) November 20, 2023
Marisa Coppel, senior advisor to the Blockchain Association, emphasized in a statement on November 20 statement OFAC needs to focus on sanctioning bad actors rather than outright banning tools, over which she claimed OFAC has no authority.
“OFAC must recognize Tornado Cash for what it is: a tool that anyone can use,” Coppel said. “OFAC should continue to focus on bad actors misusing such tools rather than sanctioning tools for legitimate purposes.”
“OFAC’s action sets a dangerous new precedent, significantly exceeds their authority and jeopardizes the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans.”
In its brief, the Blockchain Association recommended that OFAC should act within the law and seek congressional approval to ban cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash.
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“The correct remedy is to seek legislation from Congress that provides supplementary powers in the unique context of decentralized digital assets, rather than unduly extending existing powers,” it said.
“This power grab would be a slippery slope that could threaten the variety of Internet-based tools that have been freely available to date.”
The Blockchain Association has long argued that Tornado Cash has no owners or operators and operates autonomously without human intervention or assistance.
5/ OFAC’s authority only applies to persons or property…Tornado Cash software is neither.
There is no master.
There is no operator.
It operates autonomously.
And remain unchanged.— Marissa Tashman Coppel (@MTCoppel) November 20, 2023
OFAC first approved Tornado Cash in August 2022. allegedly Individuals and groups have used mixers to launder more than $7 billion since 2019, including $455 million stolen by the North Korean-affiliated Lazarus Group.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase also supported the lawsuit and pledged
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