Ethereum Foundation Backs Tornado Cash Developer's Legal Defense

The Ethereum Foundation has pledged $1.25 million to support the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev, a developer linked to the Tornado Cash project. Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands in 2022 on money laundering charges and later convicted, sparking debate on the criminalization of privacy tool development and raising concerns over developer rights and software privacy.

Pertsev's legal troubles began in 2022 when Dutch authorities arrested him for his role in Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused platform that allows users to mix and transfer cryptocurrencies. Despite having no control over the funds moving through the platform, Pertsev was found guilty of helping money laundering and received a five-year and four-month prison sentence in May 2024. Following his conviction, Pertsev appealed the ruling and is still fighting the charges. In February 2025, he was granted conditional release from pretrial detention and placed under electronic monitoring.

The Ethereum Foundation's donation is part of a larger effort to support developers facing similar legal battles related to Tornado Cash. Paradigm, a crypto firm, also donated $1.25 million to Tornado Cash's co-founder Roman Storm for his defense in the U.S. case. Additionally, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin contributed 50 ETH, worth approximately $170,000, to the legal defense funds for both Pertsev and Storm.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022, claiming the platform allowed the laundering of over $7 billion in illegal funds and connected it to North Korean hacking groups. However, the legality of these bans is now being questioned. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Appeals Court decided in November 2024 that OFAC may have overstepped its authority by banning the platform's smart contracts. The legal battles of Pertsev and Storm continue to receive support from different groups, with amicus briefs filed by the DeFi Education Fund, Coin Center, and the Blockchain Association arguing for developer rights to create and share software without fear of being charged.