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Tornado Cash

TORN · Field entry
PrivacyDeFiPrivacyCaution flagNot on major US exchanges

An Ethereum mixing protocol at the center of landmark US sanctions and criminal cases

By

$6.881.74%Snapshot · October 20, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$33.02M
24h volume
$1.36M
Rank
#615
Circulating
4.80M TORN
Max supply
10.00M TORN
All-time high
$436.16 February 13, 2021

TORN price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

Read this first — caution flag. Sanctions and criminal-case history: OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022 (removed in March 2025 after a court loss); co-founder Roman Storm was convicted on one count in 2025 and faces retrial in April 2027; co-founder Alexey Pertsev's Dutch money-laundering conviction is on appeal; the governance system was hijacked in 2023; TORN is not on major US exchanges. How to evaluate a project.
Not on major US exchanges. As of October 2026 Kraken says Tornado Cash is not available on its platform and Binance does not list TORN for spot trading; we could not find TORN on Coinbase, Gemini or Robinhood. How to buy crypto safely.

What is Tornado Cash?

Tornado Cash is a set of smart contracts on Ethereum, first deployed in 2019, that breaks the visible link between the address that deposits crypto and the address that later withdraws it. It is best known for legal fights: US sanctions in 2022 that a federal appeals court later ruled unlawful, and criminal cases against two of its developers. TORN is the token used to vote on the project's governance.

Utility Lens

What Tornado Cash actually does

Lets Ethereum users withdraw funds to a new address without an obvious on-chain link to the address that deposited them.

Real-world usage
establishedThe pools have seen heavy, sustained use since 2019, though Treasury and prosecutors say much of that flow involved illicit funds.
Token necessity
optionalAnyone can use the pools without TORN; the token only lets holders vote on a limited set of governance matters.
Decentralization
moderateThe core pool contracts are immutable and no one can change or stop them, but the separate governance system was taken over by an attacker in 2023.
Track record
provenDeployed in 2019; it was sanctioned by OFAC in 2022 (lifted in 2025) and its governance was hijacked in May 2023.

How we rate

What it’s used for

The pool contracts still run on Ethereum and cannot be switched off, so people continue to use them for privacy, for example to donate without exposing their main wallet. US Treasury and prosecutors say the tool has also been used to launder large sums, including funds stolen by North Korean hackers. TORN holders can lock tokens to vote on a limited set of governance questions.

Role of the TORN token:

governance

Evidence of real use

  • In its 2022 sanctions announcement, the US Treasury said criminals had laundered over $7 billion through Tornado Cash since 2019, including more than $455 million taken by North Korea's Lazarus Group. Source
  • The Fifth Circuit's 2024 opinion describes a plaintiff who used Tornado Cash to donate anonymously to Ukraine out of concern that Russian hackers would target him. Source
  • Prosecutors said Tornado Cash moved more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds when co-founder Roman Storm was convicted on one count in August 2025. Source

Privacy: what’s hidden, what isn’t

Privacy model
app-level
What it hides
Which earlier deposit a withdrawal came from, so the deposit address and withdrawal address are not directly linked on-chain.
What stays visible
Every deposit and withdrawal, the addresses involved, the fixed pool amount, timing, and the gas paid to make each transaction.
Reality check
Privacy depends on how many other people use the same pool around the same time, and the Fifth Circuit's opinion notes that gas payments can create a link between deposit and withdrawal accounts. Sanctions were removed in March 2025, but criminal cases against developers continue, and many platforms treat Tornado Cash funds as high risk.

Privacy coins, explained

How Tornado Cash works

Tornado Cash uses pools: smart contracts that each accept one asset in one set amount. You deposit into a pool and keep a private note. Later you can use that note to withdraw the same amount to a different address, and a zero-knowledge proof shows the withdrawal is backed by some earlier deposit without revealing which one. Because many people deposit identical amounts, an outside observer sees deposits and withdrawals but cannot directly match them.

The pool contracts were made immutable, which means nobody, including the original developers, can edit, pause or remove them. That property was central to the Van Loon case, in which a federal appeals court, the Fifth Circuit, decided in November 2024 that the immutable contracts are not the "property" of a foreign person and so could not be blocked under the sanctions law Treasury had used.

TORN arrived after the pools were finished, along with a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Holders who lock their tokens in a governance contract can vote on optional features, but the court noted the DAO cannot alter the immutable pools. That governance layer has been attacked: in May 2023 a malicious proposal handed one attacker control of the votes, and the attacker drained hundreds of thousands of TORN from governance vaults.

Key moments

  1. 2019Developers including Roman Storm, Roman Semenov and Alexey Pertsev deploy the Tornado Cash contracts on Ethereum.
  2. 2022On August 8, OFAC adds Tornado Cash to the US sanctions list; Dutch authorities later arrest Pertsev on money-laundering charges.
  3. 2023A malicious proposal hijacks Tornado Cash governance in May; in August, US prosecutors unseal charges against Storm and Semenov.
  4. 2024A Dutch court convicts Pertsev of money laundering in May, and he appeals; in November the Fifth Circuit rules OFAC exceeded its authority.
  5. 2025Treasury removes the sanctions on March 21; in August a New York jury convicts Storm on one count and deadlocks on two others.
  6. 2026Prosecutors seek a retrial on the deadlocked counts, and in August the judge sets it for April 26, 2027.

Supply

TORN is an Ethereum token with a fixed supply set at launch, according to the project's documentation. The original plan split it among a DAO treasury (55%), founding developers and early supporters (30%), an anonymity-mining program for depositors (10%) and an airdrop to early users (5%), with the treasury and team shares unlocking over several years.

Risks to understand

  • Legal risk is unusually high: co-founder Roman Storm faces a retrial in April 2027, and Alexey Pertsev's Dutch conviction is still on appeal.
  • Although the sanctions were lifted, Treasury warned US persons to exercise caution with transactions that could benefit North Korea or other malicious cyber actors, and exchanges may block or question funds with a Tornado Cash history.
  • The governance system has been hijacked before, so governance votes and treasury funds can be at risk.
  • From July 10, 2027, EU-regulated crypto service providers may not provide accounts that allow transactions to be anonymized.
  • TORN is not on the major exchanges we checked, which can mean thin liquidity.

Tornado Cash FAQ

Is Tornado Cash still sanctioned in the US?

No. Treasury removed Tornado Cash from the sanctions list on March 21, 2025, after the Fifth Circuit ruled the original designation exceeded OFAC's authority. Treasury still urged caution about transactions that could benefit North Korea.

What happened in Roman Storm's trial?

In August 2025 a jury convicted him of conspiring to run an unlicensed money-transmitting business and could not agree on money-laundering and sanctions counts. As of October 2026 his acquittal motion was unresolved and a retrial on the two other counts is set for April 26, 2027.

What about Alexey Pertsev?

A Dutch court convicted him of money laundering in May 2024. He is appealing at the Court of Appeal in 's-Hertogenbosch, and as of July 2026 no hearing date had been announced.

Do I need TORN to use Tornado Cash?

No. TORN is only used for governance votes; the pools themselves work without it.

Sources

  1. U.S. Treasury sanctions notorious virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash — U.S. Department of the Treasury
  2. Tornado Cash delisting — U.S. Department of the Treasury
  3. Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury, No. 23-50669 (opinion) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  4. Founder of Tornado Cash crypto mixing service convicted of knowingly transmitting criminal proceeds — U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
  5. Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm retrial pushed to April 2027 — crypto.news
  6. Can code commit a crime? Alexey Pertsev's trial featured at Dutch Blockchain Week — DeFi Education Fund
  7. Explained: the Tornado Cash hack (May 2023) — Halborn
  8. TORN token documentation — Tornado Cash docs (GitHub)

Last reviewed October 20, 2026. Written by . Utility Lens ratings are editorial judgments, not investment advice. Market data from CoinGecko. Spot an error? Request a correction.

About the author

Dave McNaught has worked in IT since 1999 and founded All Business Technologies (ABT) in 2003, a Boston-area firm providing Managed IT, Cybersecurity, Managed AI, Web Design and App Development. He publishes The Crypto Guide.

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