US Treasury Department: Interacting with Tornado Cash open-source code is not illegal 

The United States Treasury Department published a guide with a set of steps for the citizens who are seeking to withdraw their funds from now-sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

According to September 13-published guidelines, Tornado Cash users in the United States are required to obtain a particular license from OFAC to withdraw any cash deposited on the crypto mixing platform prior to August 8. It states:

“U.S. persons or persons conducting transactions within U.S. jurisdiction may request a specific license from OFAC to engage in transactions involving the subject virtual currency.”

The wallet addresses of the sender and the beneficiary should be provided by users along with other information that is necessary to be supplied “at a minimum” in order to complete transactions.

The sanctions against the crypto mixer were reiterated by OFAC, who said that “U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions involving Tornado Cash.”  It said that using the service would be against U.S. sanctions prohibitions.

Accessing open source code of Tornado Cash is not illegal

Interestingly, putting an end to weeks of debate and speculation on the scope of the sanctions and how it affects free speech, OFAC stated that citizens would not be breaking any government sanctions by interacting with Tornado Cash’s open source code. It added:

“U.S. persons would not be prohibited by U.S. sanctions regulations from copying the open-source code and making it available online for others to view, as well as discussing, teaching about, or including open-source code in written publications, such as textbooks, absent additional facts.”

It is important to note that the Treasury Department shut down the mixing service on August 8. Investigations into the matter revealed that the platform’s capabilities for transaction obfuscation were adapted to support money laundering.

As recently reported by TheCoinRise, the arrest of Alexey Pertsev, one of the Tornado Cash developers (who was later denied bail), caused such an uproar in the crypto industry that Coinbase decided to fund a class action lawsuit against the Department to protect users who were subjected to the restrictions.