Van Loon plaintiffs appealed in the Fifth Circuit on September 2 challenging the U.S. Treasury Department's decision to place Tornado Cash on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The plaintiffs argued that the Treasury Department's imposition of sanctions on the open-source project without clear guidelines could threaten programmers' First Amendment rights. Van Loon and his team sued the Treasury in September 2023, accusing it of exceeding its authority.
In a class action lawsuit against Tether and Bitfinex, the plaintiffs filed a new lite complaint alleging that the crypto firms manipulated cryptocurrency prices and violated the Antimonopoly Act by pushing the stablecoin USDT, which is not fully backed by the U.S. dollar, into the market. This is the third complaint in the case, overseen by U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla. The complaint alleges that Tether and Bitfinex created the illusion of increased demand, prompting transactions u...