The U.S. Treasury Department acted outside its authority when it sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash in 2022 and accused it of helping launder over $7 billion for North Korean hackers and other malicious cyber actors,

Two years ago, the US government imposed far-reaching sanctions against the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. But it was not allowed to do so.

A federal appellate court ruled that privacy tools built on the Ethereum blockchain, known as Tornado Cash, cannot be subject to the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department. Why it matters: The ruling advances cryptocurrency law by finding that certain kinds of smart contracts are not property.

A U.S. court has recently made a significant ruling that overturned the U.S. government’s sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing service. The case centers around whether the U.S. Treasury Department had the legal authority to impose these sanctions on Tornado Cash,

The crypto sector has registered another big win after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday that the Treasury overstepped by sanctioning Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts. The court ruled that the autonomous software cannot be classified as property.