U.S. Jury Deadlocks on Top Charges Against Tornado Cash Co-Founder

Generated by AI AgentCoin World
Thursday, Aug 7, 2025 12:43 pm ET1min read
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Aime RobotAime Summary

- U.S. jury deadlocked on top charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, including money laundering conspiracy.

- Storm was convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmission business, while prosecutors claimed he profited from illicit use of the privacy protocol.

- The case highlights regulatory risks for crypto developers, with industry figures defending non-custodial protocols' liability.

- Similar charges led to guilty pleas from Samourai Wallet founders, underscoring ongoing debates over developer accountability.

A U.S. jury deadlocked on the most serious charges against Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions, during a trial in Manhattan [1]. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on these allegations, despite four days of deliberation [2]. However, they did find Storm guilty on a lesser charge of operating an unlicensed money transmission business [3].

The case centered on Tornado Cash, a decentralized cryptocurrency privacy protocol accused of enabling over $1 billion in illicit transactions, including those linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group [4]. Prosecutors argued that Storm was aware of the tool's misuse and profited from it, while his defense team maintained that the founders were unaware of the malicious activity and were shocked upon learning of Lazarus’ involvement [5].

The legal battle has significant implications for the broader crypto industry, particularly for open-source developers and privacy-focused protocols. The DeFi Education Fund and

Ethereum
co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly defended Storm, emphasizing that developers of non-custodial protocols should not be held liable for how their tools are used [6].

The outcome follows a similar case involving the founders of Samourai Wallet, another privacy tool, who recently pleaded guilty to money laundering charges [7]. While the guilty verdict on the unlicensed money transmission charge could carry serious consequences, the deadlocked jury on the more severe counts leaves room for future legal proceedings.

The trial, presided over by Judge Katherine Polk Failla, highlighted the ongoing debate over developer liability and the role of open-source software in the crypto ecosystem. The verdict has sparked discussions about the future of privacy-focused protocols and the potential regulatory risks for developers [8].

Source:

[1] Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-jury-deadlocks-tornado-cash-founders-money-laundering-charge-2025-08-06/)

[2] Cointelegraph (https://cointelegraph.com/news/tornado-cash-roman-storm-found-guilty-partial-verdict)

[3] Cointribune (https://www.cointribune.com/en/roman-storm-tornado-cash-verdict/)

[4] unchainedcrypto.com (https://unchainedcrypto.com/tornado-cash-co-founder-roman-storm-found-guilty-on-one-count/)

[5] The (https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/developer-of-crypto-mixer-tornado-cash-found-guilty-on-one-criminal-charge-a1c32405?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAihvJQtESqcOhCbRek3jh2BRaPu5uCmZlDnHSEC1O9mQgckLfTy60LW&gaa_sig=j1dq617XYdIGoRMtg9tjF4B6rqm0kQNBzaMFvcP-LesHHJHuJihH1o9rXnWv05n8cC-Lo5eA27iuiRYMsTHkmA%3D%3D&gaa_ts=6894dac0)

[6] The (https://thedefiant.io/tornado-cash-co-founder-found-guilty-of-writing-code)