Privacy Mixer Tornado Cash Is an Entity, Judge Says

“It is undisputed that Tornado Cash uses smart contracts to provide a layer of privacy for its users by allowing them to deposit crypto assets in one wallet and then withdraw assets from a different wallet. Plaintiffs claim that as of 2020, the smart contracts are immutable, autonomous software applications with no custodial operator that automatically check the inputs necessary for a valid transaction, allowing withdrawals without human intervention,” he noted. “However, the government states that these smart contracts are created by Tornado Cash developers and then approved and deployed by the DAO, to provide customers with virtual currency mixing services on multiple blockchains.”