On September 13, 2022, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said people with certain transactions pending in Tornado Cash before its August 8 designation could request a specific license to withdraw the virtual currency. The guidance did not create an automatic right to recover funds.
Under the guidance then in force, an applicant was expected to provide the wallet addresses of the sender and beneficiary, transaction hashes, the date and time of the transaction and the amount involved. OFAC said it would generally take a favorable licensing approach when the transaction had been initiated before the designation and did not involve other sanctionable conduct. The agency’s consolidated sanctions guidance explains that specific licenses are decided case by case.
The clarification also distinguished transactions from speech about software. OFAC said that copying, discussing or teaching about open-source code was not prohibited by itself, provided the activity did not involve a prohibited transaction with sanctioned addresses. It separately said that it would not prioritize enforcement against people who received unsolicited, nominal transfers—a practice commonly described as “dusting”—when they had no other sanctions connection.
Treasury had designated Tornado Cash in August 2022, alleging that the service had been used to launder proceeds from several cyberattacks. Its designation notice stated that transactions involving blocked property were prohibited for U.S. persons unless authorized or exempt.
Later status change
This article describes the rules announced in September 2022. They should not be read as a statement of current sanctions status. On March 21, 2025, OFAC removed Tornado Cash and the listed smart-contract addresses from the SDN List. Treasury said it remained concerned about illicit finance and North Korean cyber activity, but the 2022 designation was no longer in force.
Because sanctions obligations depend on the parties, addresses and date of a transaction, anyone assessing a specific case should consult the current OFAC lists and qualified legal counsel rather than rely on this historical report.
