Coinbase Legal Chief Criticizes US Treasury for Attempting to Dismiss Tornado Cash Suit

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Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, criticized the US Treasury for attempting to dismiss the Tornado Cash lawsuit by labeling the case as moot.

On March 21, the Treasury officially removed Tornado Cash and several related smart contract addresses from its sanctions list, reversing the August 2022 sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Regulators had accused the platform of facilitating money laundering, including transactions linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

This action followed a federal appeals court ruling in November 2024, which determined that the Treasury had exceeded its authority by sanctioning the crypto mixer’s immutable smart contracts.