Roman Storm Seeks $1.5M Urgently for Legal Defense as Tornado Cash Trial Tests Crypto Privacy Laws

Generated by AI AgentCoin World
Sunday, Jul 27, 2025 10:41 pm ET2min read
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Aime RobotAime Summary

- Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, urgently seeks $1.5M for his ongoing U.S. trial, accused of laundering money and violating sanctions via the privacy-focused DeFi protocol.

- Prosecutors argue Tornado Cash enabled illicit transactions, including those linked to North Korea, while the defense claims developers shouldn’t be liable for user actions, citing First Amendment protections.

- The case could set a legal precedent for crypto privacy tools, with critics warning it might stifle innovation and supporters emphasizing financial autonomy in the digital age.

- Other co-founders face separate legal outcomes, including a Dutch conviction and a fugitive status, highlighting fragmented accountability in decentralized projects.

Roman Storm, a co-founder of the Tornado Cash decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has issued an urgent request for an additional $1.5 million in legal funding as his trial in New York proceeds into its third week. The trial, which began on July 14, centers on allegations that Storm conspired to launder money, violated U.S. sanctions, and operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business through his role in developing the privacy-focused crypto tool. Storm’s legal team, working “around the clock,” has already raised over $3.9 million from the crypto community to cover mounting costs, but the developer emphasized in a July 26 X post that expenses are “piling up fast” and that “every hour counts” [1].

The case has drawn significant attention due to its potential to set a legal precedent for the criminalization of open-source privacy tools. Prosecutors argue that Tornado Cash, which allows users to obscure the origins of cryptocurrency transactions, facilitated illicit activity, including transactions linked to the North Korean-backed Lazarus Group. This led to sanctions by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in August 2022. However, those sanctions were overturned in January 2023 after a civil lawsuit by Tornado Cash users, and the protocol was officially removed from OFAC’s blacklist in March [2].

Storm’s defense team contends that Tornado Cash is a decentralized, immutable protocol not controlled by its creators and that developers should not be held liable for how users deploy the tool. They cite a 2019 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) guidance stating that creators of anonymizing software are not required to register as money transmitters. Additionally, the defense asserts that publishing code is protected under the First Amendment as free speech. The trial, expected to conclude by August 11, could redefine legal boundaries for crypto innovation, particularly regarding privacy rights and the classification of open-source protocols [3].

Financial support for Storm’s defense has come from multiple sources. The

Ethereum
Foundation has reached its $750,000 fundraising goal, while Storm’s Legal Defense Fund has raised $3.2 million, or 65% of its $5 million target. These efforts highlight the broader implications of the trial for the DeFi community, where developers often rely on crowdfunding to sustain legal battles. Critics warn that a conviction could deter future innovation by criminalizing tools designed to protect user privacy, while supporters argue that such protocols are essential for financial autonomy in the digital age [4].

The Tornado Cash case also underscores the fragmented outcomes for its creators. Co-founder Alexey Pertsev was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in May 2024 and is currently appealing, while another co-founder, Roman Semenov, remains at large and is listed as a fugitive by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Storm’s legal strategy, however, focuses on distinguishing his role as a developer from the actions of users, a distinction that remains central to the trial’s narrative [5].

Source: [1] [Roman Storm asks for $1.5M lifeline as Tornado Cash trial presses on] (https://cointelegraph.com/news/roman-storm-asks-more-donations-tornado-cash-case?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound)

[2] [Roman Storm asks for $1.5M lifeline as Tornado Cash trial presses on] (https://cointelegraph.com/news/roman-storm-asks-more-donations-tornado-cash-case?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound)

[3] [Roman Storm asks for $1.5M lifeline as Tornado Cash trial presses on] (https://cointelegraph.com/news/roman-storm-asks-more-donations-tornado-cash-case?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound)

[4] [Roman Storm asks for $1.5M lifeline as Tornado Cash trial presses on] (https://cointelegraph.com/news/roman-storm-asks-more-donations-tornado-cash-case?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound)

[5] [Roman Storm asks for $1.5M lifeline as Tornado Cash trial presses on] (https://cointelegraph.com/news/roman-storm-asks-more-donations-tornado-cash-case?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound)