Today in crypto, the US Treasury Department has officially removed crypto mixer Tornado Cash from its sanctions list. Meanwhile, crypto investors’ appetite for speculation is cooling, as rising scams and global geopolitical tensions dampen sentiment. In Australia, the government has pledged to tackle crypto debanking, unveiling plans for a new regulatory framework focused on digital asset exchanges.
Tornado mixer dropped from US blacklist
The US Treasury Department has dropped cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash from its sanctions list, the agency said on March 21.
The removal follows a January ruling by a US appeals court, which said the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cannot sanction Tornado’s smart contracts because they are not the property of any foreign national.
According to the January court ruling, “Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity, meaning […] OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority.”
In a March 21 statement, the Treasury said OFAC removed several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses on the Ethereum blockchain network from its sanctions list.
Tornado’s native token, Tornado Cash (TORN), was up around 60% on the news, according to data from CoinMarketCap. As of March 21, TORN has a market capitalization of around $73 million and a fully diluted value (FDV) of nearly $140 million, the data shows.
TORN is up around 60% on the news. Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin speculative appetite declines as investors seek safety
Speculative appetite is vanishing from the crypto markets, as investors are looking for safer digital asset investments following the recent wave of memecoin scams and macroeconomic uncertainty.
Bitcoin’s hot supply metric, which measures the Bitcoin (BTC) aged one week or less, is down over 50%, from 5.9% at the end of November to just 2.3% on March 20, Glassnode data shows.
Bitcoin hot supply metric. Source: Glassnode
The metric’s decline signals an investor shift to safer investment positioning amid the recent market volatility, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.
Australia outlines crypto regulation plan, promises action on debanking
Australia’s government, under its ruling center-left Labor Party, has proposed a new crypto framework regulating exchanges under existing financial services laws and has promised to tackle debanking.
It comes ahead of a federal election slated to be held on or before May 17, which current polling shows is shaping up to a dead heat between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor and the opposing Coalition led by Peter Dutton.
Source: Kate Cooper
The Treasury Department said in a March 21 statement that crypto exchanges, custody services and some brokerage firms that trade or store crypto will come under the new laws.
The regime imposes similar compliance requirements as other financial services in the country, such as following rules safeguarding customer assets, obtaining an Australian Financial Services Licence and meeting minimum capital requirements.
Albanese’s government intends to release a draft of the legislation for public consultation. However, a change of government could be on the horizon with a looming federal election, a date for which is yet to be called.
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