We’re suing the government again

Oct 14, 2022

This week Coin Center announced another lawsuit against the U.S. government. We are suing the Treasury Department and its Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) over its recent sanction of Tornado Cash smart contracts.

Jerry Brito @jerrybrito

1/ Today Coin Center filed suit in federal district court against OFAC challenging its authority to sanction Tornado Cash immutable smart contracts.

You can read more about our suit and the full complaint here: Coin Center is suing OFAC over its Tornado Cash sanction.

Previously, we have sued the Treasury department over its unconstitutional surveillance requirements for transactions directly between two parties. That case is in process and we will share updates when we can.

Recent news from the Securities and Exchange Commission has reopened the discussion of when and how NFTs can be securities. Research Director Peter Van Valkenburgh joined Laura Shin to dive into these issues.

Laura Shin @laurashin

.@valkenburgh of @coincenter joins @Unchained_pod to discuss: 🐵 the SEC probe into Yuga Labs 🧐 how metaverse land sales are like securities offerings 👩🏽‍⚖️ CoinCenter’s lawsuit against Treasury & OFAC over Tornado Cash sanctions + more! unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-sec-is…

Different news from the SEC has reopened the discussion of staking and securities laws. Peter joined a twitter space hosted by our friends at the Proof of Stake Alliance to break down the issue.

Listen to the recording here:

Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA) @TeamPOSA

https://t.co/UO5JNhFbAx

Peter also gave a lecture on privacy and surveillance law for U.C. Berkeley’s Decentralized Finance MOOC. The video is two hours long and goes into detail on hot button issues particular to DeFi.

Watch: Peter Van Valkenburgh, Current Topics in Crypto Regulation

We participated in POLITICO’s Writing the Rules of Crypto event in D.C. alongside Rep. Patrick McHenry, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee.