Ethereum’s Buterin Backs Tornado Cash Developers With ETH Donation

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made a decent contribution to the legal defense fund for Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.

The Juicebox project Free Pertsev and Storm announced Buterin’s donation of 50 Ether (ETH), valued at roughly $170,000 at the time. This donation accounts for about 25% of the $650,000 currently available for Storm’s legal aid through JusticeDAO.

Pertsev and Storm faced legal challenges stemming from their involvement with cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash. Pertsev was arrested in 2022 by Dutch authorities, found guilty of money laundering in May 2024 and sentenced to more than five years in prison. He plans to appeal the verdict.

In the U.S., Storm and another developer, Roman Semenov, were charged with money laundering, sanctions violations, and fraud. Storm has been released on bail ahead of his trial set for April 14, while Semenov remains at large.

The legal actions against the developers are tied to the U.S. Treasury’s decision in August 2022 to add Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The Treasury claimed bad actors, including North Korean hackers, laundered over $7 billion through the service since 2019.

Buterin has previously supported the developers’ legal battles, including a 100 ETH donation (~$240,000) to the Free Pertsev and Storm Juicebox fund in October. Fundraising efforts like a GoFundMe campaign were shut down earlier this year.

Legal challenges against Tornado Cash and its developers extended beyond the criminal cases. Crypto advocacy groups, including Coin Center and Coinbase-backed Tornado Cash users, filed lawsuits against the U.S. Treasury.

In November, an appellate court ruled that the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts, which cannot be controlled or altered by any individual or entity. However, the ruling did not impact the criminal cases.

Storm’s motion claims this ruling invalidates allegations of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), as the smart contracts do not constitute “property” subject to sanctions under the law. The appeals court added that Tornado Cash’s technology operates autonomously, making it impossible for its creators to prevent its use, even by sanctioned entities like North Korean hackers.

Storm’s motion follows a broader legal battle against OFAC’s actions, initiated by six Tornado Cash users with support from Coinbase. Although the case was initially dismissed, the appeals court reversed the decision in November 2023.