A developer has deployed a version of Tornado Cash called ETHTornado on MegaETH’s public testnet, shortly after the U.S. Treasury officially lifted sanctions on the original protocol.
The move adds privacy functionality to the high-performance blockchain and reignites debate around crypto mixers and code freedom.
Background
- Tornado Cash, a controversial Ethereum-based crypto mixer designed to enhance transaction privacy, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2022 for allegedly facilitating money laundering—particularly by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
- However, in January 2025, a U.S. court ruled that OFAC overstepped its authority, leading to the protocol and its associated wallets being removed from the sanctions list in March.
- Just days after this development, a pseudonymous developer known as Gunboats announced that they had ported the Tornado Cash protocol to MegaETH, a new high-speed blockchain capable of processing up to 20,000 transactions per second.
- The deployed contract, dubbed ETHTornado, was placed on the MegaETH testnet.
- Gunboats clarified that the port required no change to the original Tornado Cash codebase and was partially done as a playful experiment—though it also serves as a statement about decentralization and open-source resilience.
Why Should You Pay Attention?
- This revival of Tornado Cash on a new blockchain could have wide-reaching implications for both developers and regulators.
- On one hand, it demonstrates how censorship-resistant technology and open-source code can quickly reappear, even after legal takedowns.
- On the other hand, it reopens discussions around the balance between privacy rights and the fight against illicit finance in crypto.
- Furthermore, Gunboats’ actions may stir further debate about the effectiveness and ethical implications of blacklisting wallets or protocols rather than prosecuting specific behavior.
- The deployment also highlights how easily complex smart contract protocols can be ported across chains with modern development tools—fueling concerns about enforcement limitations.
Who Said What?
- Gunboats, developer of ETHTornado, noted:
“I thought, maybe someone should try to deploy [Tornado Cash] on the hottest thing right now... there is no change in code needed and that's really a good thing.”
- On concerns about wallet dusting, Gunboats added:
“It’s really silly anyway whether you can dust people’s wallet at 10ms or 12 seconds a time, the end result is you got put on the list.”
- Bread, Head of Community and Growth at MegaETH, responded positively:
“You should add this to the community wiki.”
- Gunboats also posted:
“Free Roman Storm,” referring to the Tornado Cash developer still facing prosecution in the U.S.
Zooming Out
- The reappearance of Tornado Cash functionality on MegaETH underscores the challenges regulators face in keeping pace with decentralized and borderless technologies.
- While the U.S. Treasury’s reversal was celebrated by privacy advocates and open-source communities, it’s clear the legal and ethical tensions remain unresolved.
- ETHTornado’s debut illustrates how easy it is to revive "controversial" technologies, especially when jurisdictional boundaries are blurred and developers mostly operate pseudonymously.
- It also raises questions about how networks will respond to compliance risks in an environment where protocols like MegaETH can deploy mixers that operate outside of traditional legal frameworks.
- As the debate over financial privacy and state surveillance continues, this latest iteration of Tornado Cash may serve less as a functional tool for now and more as a symbolic statement about developer autonomy—and the persistence of decentralized code.
