US Treasury Lifts Tornado Cash Sanctions After Three Years
US Treasury Lifts Tornado Cash Sanctions After Three Years
🔓 Tornado Cash Freed
The US Treasury Department has removed sanctions on Tornado Cash, the Ethereum-based privacy protocol, in March 2025. The sanctions were originally imposed in 2022.
Key Points:
- Tornado Cash is a coin mixing service that enables private transactions on Ethereum
- The protocol was sanctioned by US Treasury in 2022
- Sanctions were officially lifted in March 2025, marking a significant policy reversal
- This represents a major shift in regulatory approach to privacy-focused crypto tools
The removal of sanctions could have implications for how regulators view privacy protocols in the cryptocurrency space going forward.
13/ The OG privacy pool is @TornadoCash. It was famously sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2022 but these sanctions were removed in March 2025.
Ethereum Core Devs Complete Soldgn Interop in Arctic Norway
Over 100 Ethereum core contributors gathered in Longyearbyen, Svalbard for the **Soldgn Interop** - a week-long working session focused on the upcoming **Glamsterdam network upgrade**. **Key outcomes:** - Teams from various client implementations worked on hardening and testing Glamsterdam - Contributors established a candidate post-fork gas limit - The event follows last year's Berlinterop gathering The interop represents ongoing coordination among Ethereum's decentralized development teams to prepare infrastructure changes. These regular gatherings allow core developers to collaborate in person on technical implementation details before major network upgrades go live.
🛡️ ETH Rangers Program Launches to Fund Ethereum Security Work
The Ethereum Foundation has partnered with Secureum, The Red Guild, and Security Alliance (SEAL) to launch the **ETH Rangers Program** in late 2024. The initiative provides **financial stipends** to individuals conducting public goods security work within the Ethereum ecosystem. **Key details:** - Program aims to incentivize security research and protection efforts - Supported by the Protocol Security Research Team and Ecosystem Funding Initiative - Focuses on strengthening Ethereum's overall security infrastructure The program represents a collaborative effort to reward those contributing to the network's safety and resilience.
Ethereum Ecosystem Ships 22 Updates: Privacy Tools, AI Agents, and Institutional Infrastructure
The Ethereum ecosystem delivered significant updates across privacy, AI integration, and institutional infrastructure. **Privacy Advances** - Aztec Network Alpha launched with native privacy features - Scroll enabled private transfers onchain - Hinkal Pay introduced end-to-end confidential payments - Peer Verify allows privacy-preserving identity proofs via ZK **AI Integration** - Morpho Agents (beta) enables natural language lending integration - Venice shipped verifiable encrypted AI systems - Coinbase's x402 protocol moves to Linux Foundation for AI payment standards **Infrastructure Updates** - Ethereum Economic Zone framework aims to unify L1 and L2s - Aave V4 released with hub-and-spoke architecture supporting 20+ assets - Fast Confirmation Rule reduces L1 to L2 deposit times to 13 seconds - Post-quantum wallets launched on Starknet **Institutional Progress** - Stablecoins on Ethereum surpassed $180B supply (60% global market share) - ZKsync's Cari Network brings tokenized deposits onchain with five regional banks - ENS integrated with PayPal for cross-border payments **Security & Recovery** - Privacy Ethereum released Social Recovery SDK for wallet restoration - Safe launched Safenet (beta) pre-execution security layer - Silo V3 introduced safer lending market architecture The Ethereum Foundation published its mandate and launched [pq.ethereum.org](https://pq.ethereum.org) for post-quantum cryptography research.
Ethereum Foundation Publishes Official Mandate Document
The Ethereum Foundation has released its **EF Mandate**, a comprehensive document that functions as a constitution, manifesto, and operational guide for the organization. The mandate is primarily intended as an internal framework to clarify the Foundation's purpose and direction. It outlines the EF's core mission and responsibilities within the Ethereum ecosystem. The full document is available at ethereum.foundation/ef-mandate.pdf for those interested in understanding the Foundation's formal structure and objectives.
Neo-Cypherpunks Push Forward Privacy Initiatives on Ethereum
The Neo-Cypherpunk movement is actively working to enhance privacy protections on Ethereum. This community-driven effort bridges technical and cultural contributions, emphasizing that both are equally valuable in advancing privacy goals. **Key Points:** - Neo-Cypherpunks are focused on making Ethereum safer for privacy-conscious users - The movement values cultural communication alongside technical development - Community members can get involved through organizations like [@web3privacy](https://twitter.com/web3privacy), [@winprivacy](https://twitter.com/winprivacy), and [@ETHPanda_Org](https://twitter.com/ETHPanda_Org) The initiative represents a collaborative approach to privacy, welcoming contributors regardless of their technical background.