A group of six users of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash filed an appeal in a US court after a decision that the US Treasury Department has the right to add the service to the list of sanctions.

Attorneys representing plaintiffs Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale and Nate Welch, filed the case with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The decision being appealed from a Texas federal court was issued in August. The court then ruled that Tornado Cash could be subject to sanctions under the authority of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Lawyers claim that the US Treasury “expanded its powers beyond recognition” by adding the Tornado Cash cryptomixer to the sanctions list.

The plaintiffs are sure: smart contracts are considered immutable and are not owned by anyone. Tornado Cash itself has no legally recognized interest in the use of these smart contracts. The general counsel of the largest American crypto exchange Coinbase, Paul Grewal, supported the plaintiffs’ efforts, saying that the appeals court should carefully consider the claim.

“Ordinary Americans are doing extraordinary and admirable things. With the support of Coinbase and many other players in the crypto market, the plaintiffs went to the appeals court to challenge the sanctions against the immutable Tornado Cash software,”
explained Grewal on social network X.

The US Treasury blacklisted Tornado Cash back in August 2022, which caused outrage among users and participants in the crypto industry. Last fall, the non-profit organization Coin Center filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department for blocking Tornado Cash, but lost the case in federal court in Florida. On November 6, a group of lawyers filed a complaint with the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Recall that the administration of President Joe Biden recently declared cryptocurrency mixers to be money laundering centers that threaten the country’s national security.