The cryptocurrency community witnessed a massive shake-up over the past few years. Terms like ‘arrest’ and ‘prison’ became immensely common. The arrest of Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind Tornado Cash, stunned the world. This comes after the mixing protocol was sanctioned for assisting the North Korean Lazarus Group in laundering stolen cryptocurrency. In a fresh move, a US court revoked the penalties against the Tornado Cash platform.

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A Victory For Tornado Cash

In a new turn of events, the crypto-mixing protocol was seen slowly moving out of the shackles of law enforcement. According to a court document published on January 21, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas revoked the OFAC’s penalties on Tornado Cash. The filing read,

“It is ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the district court is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the district court for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion of this court.”

Tornado Cash was slapped with sanctions back in August 2022. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the firm for allegedly assisting the North Korean Lazarus Group. The firm reportedly laundered more than $455 million in cryptocurrency that was looted.

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Will Alexey Pertsev Continue To Remain In Prison?

Sanctions on the firm further resulted in the arrest of Tornado Cash creator Alexey Pertsev. He was convicted of money laundering by Dutch judges at a court in the Netherlands on May 14. The developer was sentenced to five years and four months in jail for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion in criminal assets through Tornado Cash.

Furthermore, Pertsev remains arrested on money laundering accusations. This is even after the fact that he was working on a non-custodial crypto mixer that never retains or manages customer assets.

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