Privacy coins to watch after Trump’s pardon of Ross Ulbricht and Tornado Cash sanctions withdrawal

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies could see a rally in the coming weeks with Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), DASH, MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) and Decred (DCR) seeing slight gains following a US court's overruling of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) sanction on Tornado Cash and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht's presidential pardon.

Privacy coins could rally following Tornado Cash OFAC sanction withdrawal

The crypto market celebrated two big wins on Wednesday following a US court's overruling of the OFAC's sanction against crypto mixing protocol Tornado Cash. Likewise, President Donald Trump signed an official pardon freeing Ross Ulbricht. 

The US District Court for the Western District of Texas reversed the previous sanction passed on Tornado Cash and Alexy Pertsev in 2022.

OFAC originally sanctioned the mixing protocol after it alleged that it was involved in the laundering of $455 million by the famous North Korean Lazarus group.

This led to stiff legal actions, which culminated in the arrest and conviction of Tornado Cash developer Alexy Pertsev. Pertsev was found guilty of $1.2 billion in laundered assets via the platform and was sentenced to five years in prison by a Dutch court.

Privacy tokens were cast into murky waters following the sanction as most coins in the sector have been consolidating since the last bear market.

However, the Texas court's overruling is seen as a step forward in the move for better crypto regulations.

The privacy coin sector witnessed gains of over 4% following the overrulling with signs of renewed investor activity. With the recent developments, some of the coins within the sector to watch out for include Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), DASH, MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) and Decred (DCR).

Meanwhile, Trump signed an official presidential pardon, offering a full and unconditional release of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Ulbricht was convicted of two life sentences without parole for creating and operating Silk Road — a market that promoted the use of Bitcoin in exchange for illegal services on the dark web such as drugs and murder

President Trump stated in a post on Truth Social that Ulbricht's pardon is partly in gratitude to the Libertarian movement for their support during his campaign. He also shared his strong disdain for the government, which convicted Ulbricht.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!," wrote Trump.

Ulbricht's pardon adds to Trump's growing list of crypto-related moves since his inauguration.