<p data-el="text" data-qa="drop-cap-letter">Source: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/08/coinbase-treasury-sanctions-mixers-/" rel="external"><strong>Washington Post</strong></a></p> <p data-el="text" data-qa="drop-cap-letter">Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, is bankrolling a lawsuit against the Treasury Department challenging its decision to sanction a program that allowed North Korean hackers and other illicit actors to launder billions of dollars’ worth of digital tokens.</p> <p data-el="text" data-qa="drop-cap-letter">It is a potentially risky move that thrusts Coinbase — a publicly traded company that has seen its stock drop by 73 percent this year amid a broader downturn in the crypto market — into a fraught national security debate. The U.S. government has said stolen crypto is a primary source of money for North Korea’s nuclear program.</p> <p data-el="text" data-qa="drop-cap-letter">Crypto interests, however, were outraged by Treasury’s targeting of the “crypto mixer” Tornado Cash, which helps disguise the origin of cryptocurrency. They criticized the <strong><a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916" rel="external" target="_blank">decision</a></strong> last month as an unprecedented assault on computer code and a potential violation of the Constitution’s free speech protections. At least one group, the crypto think tank Coin Center, threatened legal action.</p>
