Developer Freed: Tornado Cash's Alexey Pertsev Out of Jail Ahead of Appeal

Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been granted temporary release from prison, ending his pretrial detention ahead of his appeal against a money laundering conviction. The Netherlands resident, who has been in detention since 2022, is appealing his 64-month prison sentence handed down by a Dutch court in May 2024.

Pertsev's lawyer, Judith de Boer, confirmed his imminent release, stating that it would allow them to fully engage in his defense and prepare for the appeal under more equitable conditions. The developer had been petitioning a Dutch court for bail for months with little success before his release was granted under the condition of electronic monitoring.

Pertsev's prosecution has sparked controversy among privacy advocates who believe he is being unfairly targeted for simply writing code. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has described the prosecution as chilling for software developers. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court recently found that immutable smart contracts, which cannot be altered or controlled by an entity, cannot be classified as "property" as the sanctions implied.

Dutch prosecutors allege that Tornado Cash's software enabled criminals to launder more than $1 billion in illicit funds from at least 36 hacks of decentralized and centralized digital asset platforms. Among the funds funneled through the mixer were the more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrencies siphoned from the Ethereum network in the Ronin hack in 2022.

Meanwhile, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm faces prosecution in Manhattan, charged with facilitating money laundering through the Ethereum-based crypto mixer. In September, a New York court denied his motion to dismiss the charges, finding that his free speech argument was irrelevant to the statute under which charges were brought. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and venture capital firm Paradigm are among the organizations supporting Storm's legal defense.