Hold onto your hats, folks! TORN, the native token of the infamous crypto mixer Tornado Cash, just had its moment in the sun, reaching its highest price since November 2024. The buzz comes hot on the heels of a court decision that flipped the script on OFAC sanctions against the platform.
Picture this: TORN was chilling around $9.50 on January 22, only to rocket a whopping 140% to over $25 in a flash! Talk about a comeback! But like a rollercoaster ride, the thrill was brief, and it settled back down to $17.
Tornado Cash has been in hot water since August 2022 when OFAC slapped it with sanctions, claiming it was the playground for the notorious Lazarus Group from North Korea to wash their dirty crypto laundry worth over $455 million. To top it off, one of its developers, Alex Pertsev, got nabbed in The Netherlands, charged, and served with five years behind bars.
Not to mention, co-founder Roman Storm was also caught in the legal net in August 2023, facing charges of money laundering and running an unlicensed money-transmitting operation. With his day in court set for April 14, 2025, Storm insists he's being targeted for merely writing open-source code.
Fast forward to now, and the tables have turned! Six crypto champions, led by Joseph van Loon, took on the U.S. Treasury, OFAC, and their top dogs, accusing them of shooting from the hip. Their argument? Tornado Cash is just software, not a person or entity, and can't be sanctioned like one. An appellate court agreed, pointing out that the smart contracts are like little autonomous robots, immune to human ownership or control, and thus, not “property” under the law.
This latest court decision affirms the November ruling, despite government attempts to revisit it. However, it doesn't affect the criminal cases against Storm and his elusive co-founder Roman Semenov.
In the wake of the court's decision, TORN's value skyrocketed before cooling down to $17. But hey, it’s still up 122% from a week ago and boasts an 88% rise over the past month. With a market cap soaring over $68 million, TORN is leaving the broader crypto market in the dust, which has only inched up by 1.8%. What a wild ride!
