Tornado Cash was sanctioned multiple times over allegations of helping Lazarus Group launder funds.

Updated Mar 21, 2025, 7:34 p.m. UTCPublished Mar 21, 2025, 2:53 p.m. UTC

The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions watchdog removed Tornado Cash from its global blacklist Friday.

The crypto mixing tool has been accused of helping North Korea’s Lazarus Group launder stolen funds from its various hacks and thefts, and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control sanctioned it — meaning no U.S. person or anyone doing business with the U.S. could engage with it financially — multiple times. However, a federal appeals court ruled last November that OFAC couldn’t sanction Tornado Cash’s smart contracts because they weren’t the “property” of any foreign national.

“We remain deeply concerned about the significant state-sponsored hacking and money laundering campaign aimed at stealing, acquiring, and deploying digital assets for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Kim regime,” a press release from the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Another release from OFAC lists over 100 Ethereum (ETH) addresses that are being removed from the S