Vitalik Buterin Supports Tornado Cash Developers with $113K in Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 30 ETH, roughly $113,000, to support the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm. The public transaction, verifiable on the Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan, shows the transfer originating from Buterin’s wallet and reaching a Juicebox address linked to the “Free Alexey & Roman” legal defense fund.

Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing service built on Ethereum, allows users to enhance transaction privacy by obfuscating the trail of their funds. While this functionality empowers user privacy, it has attracted regulatory scrutiny due to concerns about its potential use in facilitating illicit activities.

This month, Dutch courts sentenced Alexey Pertsev to 64 months in prison for his role in processing $1.2 billion through the mixer from July 2019 to August 2022, concluding he facilitated money laundering. Pertsev has appealed his conviction, filing an appeal with the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal in the Netherlands.

The “Free Alexey & Roman” fund was established by a crypto privacy advocacy group specifically to provide legal representation for Pertsev and Storm in the face of these growing regulatory pressures. The fund has so far raised 593 ETH ($2.2 million) to provide legal help to the Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm. 

Both developers are facing money laundering charges stemming from their work with Tornado Cash. Buterin’s significant donation serves as a public endorsement of their cause and his belief in the importance of user privacy within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Buterin’s move comes amidst a broader trend of privacy features being squeezed out of the cryptocurrency landscape. Privacy advocate Edward Snowden recently renewed his call for built-in privacy features after Trezor, a leading hardware wallet manufacturer, discontinued its coinjoin service in June. This shutdown follows similar decisions by Wasabi Wallet and the exodus of crypto service providers from the US market due to regulatory uncertainties. Coinjoin, like Tornado Cash mixing, functions to obfuscate the origin and destination of transactions.