The Ethereum Foundation Donated $1.25m To Tornado Cash To Support Its Legal Battle
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The Ethereum Foundation recently donated $1.25 million to Tornado Cash and its developer, Alexey Pertsev, to assist in their upcoming legal battle. Pertsev is currently preparing to appeal his conviction involving money laundering.
The Ethereum Foundation publicly announced the donation, once again confirming its stance that privacy is a normal requirement and that writing code is not a crime.
Tornado cash is a decentralized protocol known as the crypto mixer. This is essentially software that provides privacy for crypto users on Ethereum’s blockchain, allowing them to mix their assets and make anonymous transfers.
Authorities Are Blaming Tornado Cash And Its Founder For Online Criminals’ Actions
Of course, private financial transactions are legal, but the problem lies in the fact that this service has been used by bad actors for money laundering purposes. One of the judges even characterized Tornado Cash as primarily a tool for this type of criminal activity, disregarding regular users’ need for privacy.
Because of these issues, a lawsuit was filed against the service and Pertsev, who was sentenced to more than five years back in May 2024. However, he intends to file an appeal, and the funds will directly enable his legal defense. Pertsev thanked The Ethereum Foundation for the donation, stating that the funds will allow him to focus on the appeal.
Meanwhile, his legal representative, Judith De Boer, said that the case is not only about Pertsev or Tornado Cash, but about the rights of open-source developers in general, and how privacy-focused technologies will be treated under the law.
In other words, this case could set an example for similar cases in the future, which is why it is important for it to reach real justice. The donation itself came shortly after Pertsev’s release from custody in early February.
The 31-year-old Russian national was originally jailed in the Netherlands in August 2022, and his sentence was to spend 64 months in a Dutch prison, as the authorities claimed he had “a habit of committing money laundering.” However, he is now out of prison, and his legal team aims to challenge the money laundering conviction, claiming that developers are not to be held responsible for how someone else uses their software.
