In striking down penalties against cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash for violating U.S. sanctions, a federal appeals court may have started to chip away at anti-money laundering (AML) regulations established by Democrats even before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) overreached when it sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022 for allowing North Korean agents to launder money stolen by a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group.

Sanctions are used by the U.S. to block any property that sanctioned entities control and to prevent U.S.-based persons and entities from consummating financial transactions with them.

Tornado Cash’s business model was based on so-called “smart contracts,” which are open-sourced computer software that allows users to access their cryptocurrency assets without revealing their identity.