Tornado Cash is a decentralized, non-custodial privacy solution built on the Ethereum blockchain. It enhances transaction privacy by breaking the on-chain link between recipient and destination addresses. Users can deposit ETH or ERC-20 tokens into Tornado Cash's smart contract, which then allows withdrawals to a different address, effectively obfuscating the transaction trail. In August 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, alleging its use in laundering over $7 billion in virtual currency since its creation in 2019, including funds stolen by North Korea's Lazarus Group. However, in November 2024, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the Treasury had exceeded its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash, as its immutable smart contracts did not qualify as property under federal law. Subsequently, in March 2025, the Treasury Department removed Tornado Cash from its sanctions list. Following the lifting of sanctions, Tornado Cash's governance token, TORN, experienced significant price movements, with a 56.5% increase over 24 hours. Tornado Cash continues to operate as a privacy tool within the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing users to conduct transactions with enhanced anonymity. Its open-source code and decentralized structure ensure that no central entity controls the protocol, aligning with the principles of decentralization in the blockchain space.
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