ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made a contribution to the legal defense fund of Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.
Buterin donated 50 eth, valued at approximately $170,000 at the time of writing, to help developers overcome growing legal challenges.
The donation
The news was shared until December 31. <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/FreeAlexeyRoman/status/1874141953610441087″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-wpel-link=”external”>mail in x from the Juicebox Free Pertsev and Storm project. One of the recipients, Roman Storm, expressed his gratitude for the funds in a separate post, describing it as a show of Buterin's leadership and support.
“Immense thanks to Vitalik Buterin for his generous donation to my legal defense fund. Your unwavering support and leadership by example continue to inspire us all. Thank you for being with me during this difficult time,” he wrote.
He also revealed that the recent donation represents approximately 25% of the $650,000 available through JusticeDAO, a community-driven initiative established to support his legal battles.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Buterin has participated in legal defense efforts in controversial cases. In 2022, he <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1490686148087320576″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-wpel-link=”external”>gave disbursed 10 eth, valued at $30,980 at the time, to the AssangeDAO legal fund created to support WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Most recently, in October, he offered 100 eth, which translates to about $240,000, to Free Pertsev and Storm Juicebox. This is in addition to another contribution he made in May to the same cause of 30 eth, worth around $113,000.
Tornado Cash Developers Face Ongoing Legal Challenges
The Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing protocol has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, especially with accusations from government agencies that it was being exploited by malicious actors for illicit activities, including money laundering.
In August 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the platform, alleging that North Korean hackers had used it to launder more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency since 2019. .
The legal action intensified scrutiny over the service, and Dutch authorities arrested co-founder Alexey Pertsev in 2022. He was later found guilty of money laundering in May 2024, for which he received a prison sentence of more than five years. Pertsev is currently appealing the verdict.
In the United States, Storm and fellow developer Roman Semenov face charges of money laundering, sanctions violations and fraud for their involvement in the cryptocurrency mixer.
Storm was released on bail and is awaiting trial, which has been rescheduled for April 14, 2025, after being postponed from its original date in December 2024. Meanwhile, Semenov remains free.
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