Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, November 27th, and today we are talking about a big

development in the tornado cash case. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,

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Slayckx breakdown pod. All right, friends. Well, frankly, I had been prepared for a very, very light news day, given that we are heading into Thanksgiving and everything is kind of quieting down.

But we got some seriously big news yesterday. The tornado cash sanctions have been overturned

in court. The Fifth Circuit Federal Appeals

Court has ruled that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, exceeded their authority

in applying sanctions to Tornado Cash. The panel of judges overruled a prior ruling out of a Texas

federal court. Just to level set for a moment because there's numerous lawsuits involving

tornado cash, this case is dealing exclusively with the legality of sanctions. It has been court. Just to level set for a moment, because there's numerous lawsuits involving Tornado Cash,

this case is dealing exclusively with the legality of sanctions. It has absolutely nothing to do with the criminal charges brought against Tornado Cash founders and might not have a meaningful

impact on those cases. However, in this case, the court found that, quote,

Tornado Cash's immutable smart contracts, the lines of privacy-enabling software code,

are not the, quote-unquote, property of a foreign national or entity, meaning, one, they cannot

be blocked under IEPA, and two, OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority.

IEEPA, or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, was enacted in 1977 to establish the sanctions regime.

It allows OFAC to use sanctions to prohibit U.S. citizens from engaging in financial transactions involving certain entities or involving their property.

The court also made a fairly stark reference to OFAC taking it upon themselves to extend their jurisdiction far beyond their legislative authority.

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