The motion aims to reopen Tornado Cash to all US-based persons in order to reclaim what the plaintiffs, particularly Coinbase, claim are constitutional breaches. On Wednesday, six plaintiffs in the Coinbase-backed court challenge to US government sanctions on Tornado Cash filed a move for summary judgment, alleging that the crypto mixer cannot be sanctioned as property by design.
The motion aims to reopen Tornado Cash to all US-based persons in order to reclaim what the plaintiffs, especially Coinbase, claim are constitutional breaches.
Coinbase Supports Tornado Cash
Crypto supporters are keeping a close eye on the issue because it has consequences for the constitutionality of privacy-enhancing technology and the freedom of US citizens to utilize them.
Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal responded in a tweet on Wednesday, calling the arguments advanced by Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch “simple but powerful.”
While privacy can be misused in some cases, Grewal asserted that US law recognizes that “we don’t take away anonymity from everyone solely because of the illegal conduct of a few.”
The plaintiffs argue in Tornado Cash’s defense that the government cannot penalize the mixer since it is not considered a foreign “national,” “person,” or collection of persons who have never met, but rather software.
The US Treasury put Tornado Cash on the OFAC’s SDN list in August last year amid allegations that the platform had been utilized to launder $7 billion in digital assets from criminal and state actors.
Coinbase backed the six people a month later, promising to bankroll the lawsuit with the goal of removing the mixing facility from OFAC’s list and limiting Treasury’s “significant unauthorized expansion” of its jurisdiction.
