Vitalik Buterin Donates Over $1 Million in Ether to Coin Center Following Tornado Cash Sanctions Overturn

Vitalik Buterin recently made headlines by donating 320 ether to the crypto think tank Coin Center. That’s worth over $1 million!

This generous donation came just hours after a U.S. appeals court overturned sanctions against Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service. The court ruled that Tornado Cash’s smart contracts aren’t the property of any foreign national or entity. Because of this, they can’t be blocked under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The court stated that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) exceeded its authority with these sanctions.

Coin Center has been a key player in the fight against these sanctions. Back in August 2022, OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash, claiming it helped launder over $7 billion in cryptocurrency. This included hundreds of millions stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

In October 2022, Coin Center took action by suing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others. They argued that the sanctions violated their rights and overstepped legal authority. When a district court dismissed the case a year later, Coin Center appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. That case is still ongoing.

Besides fighting the sanctions, Coin Center has also defended Tornado Cash’s developers. They filed an amicus brief supporting developer Roman Storm’s motion to dismiss the government’s case against him.

While Buterin hasn’t been directly involved in the legal cases, he has shown his support for both Tornado Cash and its developers. After OFAC first sanctioned Tornado Cash, Buterin publicly mentioned that he used the service to donate to Ukraine. Earlier this year, he donated 30 ETH, worth over $100,000, to help defend Storm and fellow developer Roman Semenov.

Buterin didn’t respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.