Ethereum Foundation commits $1.25 million to aid Tornado Cash developer’s legal defense

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The Ethereum Foundation(EF) announced today a $1.25 million donation to support the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev, stating that “Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.”

The EF is donating $1.25M to the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev.

Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.

You can contribute to @alex_pertsev‘s defense here: https://t.co/shWFNoDJ9g https://t.co/ITvEiRkAGt

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) February 26, 2025

Pertsev is working on appealing his conviction and 64-month prison sentence for money laundering, which was handed down in May 2024. He was conditionally released from pretrial detention earlier this month, and is currently placed under electronic monitoring.

The Foundation’s move follows Paradigm’s $1.25 million donation to aid Roman Storm, Tornado Cash’s co-founder, in his legal defense against US prosecution last month.

The donation comes in response to concerns about the prosecution’s case, which Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang argues “threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the bad acts of third parties.”

Last December, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin contributed 50 ETH, worth approximately $170,000, to a legal defense fund for Storm and Pertsev through the Juicebox project Free Pertsev and Storm.

Storm indicated the contribution represented about 25% of the $650,000 available through JusticeDAO ahead of his trial.

Thank you @VitalikButerin for helping us end the year on a good note, with a 50 ETH donation to both Roman and Alexey’s legal aid.

ZK is the future. https://t.co/WIY8B6v4qa pic.twitter.com/sM16LhnUc7

— Free Pertsev & Storm (@FreeAlexeyRoman) December 31, 2024

Pertsev was arrested by Dutch authorities in 2022 for his involvement in the crypto mixing service. In May 2024, he was found guilty of money laundering and received a prison sentence exceeding five years.

US prosecutors later charged Storm and Roman Semenov with money laundering, sanctions violations and fraud related to their roles with Tornado Cash. Storm was granted bail before his trial, scheduled for April 14, while Semenov remains at large.

The charges followed the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control adding the mixer to its Specially Designated Nationals list in August 2022. US officials claimed bad actors, including North Korean hackers, had used Tornado Cash to launder over $7 billion worth of crypto assets since 2019.

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