Is Tornado Cash illegal?

I'm staring at my hardware wallet right now, practically paralyzed by a bizarre dilemma—trying to figure out if actively obscuring a few basic Ethereum transactions might accidentally trigger a federal investigation against me. Seriously.

Over the weekend, I committed to finally scrubbing my on-chain footprint. An old buddy of mine (who barely escaped getting his exchange accounts frozen during the sweeping August 2022 OFAC sanctions) warned me that broadcasting every coffee purchase and salary deposit to the entire planet is a terrible personal security threat. Taking his advice, I tested a tiny, unknown privacy router first. The slippage was absolutely brutal.

Inevitably, the biggest mixer in the industry comes to mind. Yet, every single news article I pull up makes touching the protocol sound like handling unshielded uranium.

So, I really need some clarity from the veterans here: Is Tornado Cash illegal for an average, non-criminal US citizen to use today?

Digging through dusty Treasury Department press releases, I read that the hammer originally fell because an estimated 43.5% of the total volume back then was allegedly tied to malicious hacks. That makes sense, right? But at its core, pure mathematical code cannot technically commit a crime.

Here is the rough mental framework I sketched out regarding personal exposure. Please tell me if I am entirely missing the mark here.

My Personal Risk Matrix

If my sole goal is just breaking the public link between my centralized exchange withdrawals and my long-term savings, what exactly are regular folks doing right now? Do we just casually accept zero financial privacy, or risk destroying our lives over a simple smart contract interaction?