Josse Powell questions whether ban on Tornado Cash will withstand in court

The Chief Executive Officer of the leading crypto exchange Kraken, Josse Powell recently questioned the constitutionality of the decision to ban Tornado Cash by the United States treasury Department.

On Tuesday, during an interview with Bloomberg TV, Powell expressed opposition against the Department’s decision and doubted if the move will withstand judicial scrutiny.

Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based crypto mixer, allows users to conceal source and destination of their transactions by mixing several users’ coins before sending them to the recipients’ addresses.

Opposition on Tornado Cash ban

According to Powell, prohibiting Tornado Cash because it is utilized by criminals is comparable to prohibiting email services because some criminals might use them.

In the meantime, Kraken has disabled accounts connected to Tornado Cash as a result of the Department’s sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixing service. Earlier, addresses connected to the mixer had been similarly restricted by USDC stablecoin, which is managed by a partnership between Circle and Coinbase.

In accordance with the Bank Secrecy Act, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Circle and Coinbase must abide by the Treasury’s sanctions against Tornado Cash.

Allaire, however, disagreed with the sanction. According to him, it “raises extraordinary questions about privacy and security on the internet, and the future of public internet digital currency.”

In response to the US Treasury’s assault on the crypto mixing platform, Circle decided to restrict Tornado Cash addresses. Powell described this as a ploy to regulate decentralized networks.

The CEO of Kraken said that among the Tornado users there are also consumers who value their privacy and adhere to the law, and whose interests shouldn’t have been compromised.

As TheCoinRise reported, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin subsequently came forward to admit that he did use the mixer platform to transfer his donation to Ukraine, not to protect his identity but that of the recipient, in support of the privacy protection features of Tornado Cash.