The U.S. Treasury may have overstepped its legal authority by sanctioning cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, said crypto advocacy group Coin Center.
See related article: Circle freezes smart contract addresses linked to blacklisted Tornado Cash
Fast facts
- Coin Center will work with other advocates to seek administrative relief, according to a blog post on Tuesday.
- Blog authors argued that Tornado Cash is an unattended and self-executing “application” on Ethereum, not a person, entity or property that can be sanctioned by the Treasury Department.
- The blog also highlighted the Fifth Amendment and accused the U.S. Treasury of violating Constitutional rights to “due process and free speech.”
- Some crypto wallets belonging to celebrities were banned after the sanctions were announced, as the wallets received 0.1 ETH sent to them anonymously via Tornado Cash.
- On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group founded more than three decades ago, announced that it was joining the pool of opposition in the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanction on Tornado Cash.
See related article: Ronin hack proceeds seen headed to Tornado Cash