On June 13, the Ethereum Foundation announced that it would donate $500,000 to Roman Storm’s legal defense. Storm is the creator of Tornado Cash.
Ethereum Foundation also vowed to match up to $750,000 in community donations, effectively doubling contributions to his defense fund.
The support comes as Storm faces charges in the U.S. related to alleged money laundering violations, which is a case that has sparked debate over developer liability for open-source code.
Ethereum Foundation Supports Tornado Cash Creator
In Storm’s defense, the foundation remarked that “privacy is normal” and asserted that “writing code is not a crime.” The $750,000 matching pool aims to amplify grassroots donations, potentially bringing total support to $2 million.
Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm is urgently asking for donations to help pay for his legal defense. He could soon be sent to prison for years. Storm, who created the crypto-mixing service for private transactions, says he needs another $2 million. He’s already spent millions fighting the case over the past two years.
Tornado Cash is a privacy tool for Ethereum that allows users to hide their transaction history, like a “mixer” for cryptocurrency. Roman Storm is on trial in the U.S. for money laundering charges, even though he claims he only built the software, not controlled it.
While it was mainly designed for legitimate privacy, hackers and criminals also abused it. This includes North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The North Korean hacker stole hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency (like the Ronin Bridge hack in 2022).
They used Tornado Cash to “launder” stolen funds, making them harder to trace. Because Tornado Cash is decentralized, authorities could not easily shut it down.
In 2022, the U.S. sanctioned the crypto mixer, saying it helped criminals evade sanctions. The developers, including Roman Storm, were charged with money laundering, even though they did not directly assist hackers.
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