Tornado Cash is back on Github

Code repositories of an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency mixer, Tornado Cash, are now back on a Microsoft-owned software development hosting service, GitHub, in read-only mode.

On September 13, 2022, OFAC clarified that it is prohibited for the U.S citizens to use Tornado Cash for any transaction, however interacting with the open-source code itself without facilitating any is not. Therefore copying, making it available online for others to view, discussing and teaching about it, or including the open-source code in written publications is legitimate. This led to unbanning of the Tornado Cash organization and its contributors from GitHub on Thursday.

On August 8, 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department sanctioned the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, which is claimed to be used to launder over $7 billion in virtual currency value since 2019, and blacklisted 44 USDC and ETH addresses that were associated with it. Hours later GitHub removed the tool's code from its platform and banned the accounts of three developers that have interacted with the repository, including the one that belonged to Roman Semenov, the co-founder of the project, who was later arrested by Dutch authorities.