Ethereum Foundation Donates $500,000 for Tornado Cash Co-Founder’s Legal Defense

The nonprofit organization Ethereum Foundation (EF) has donated $500,000 to provide legal assistance for Roman Storm, co-founder and developer of the cryptocurrency mixer [Tornado Cash](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-tornado-cash-i-kak-on-rabotaet).

Additionally, the foundation aims to raise another $750,000 through community donations.

Storm faces allegations of conspiracy to launder money, evade U.S. sanctions, and engage in unlicensed money transmission via Tornado Cash. The trial is set to commence on July 14. The programmer [hopes](https://x.com/rstormsf/status/1929861184653811949) to gather $2 million for his legal expenses.

In August 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the mixer’s website to its sanctions list due to its involvement in money laundering. According to U.S. authorities, since the service’s launch, criminals have funneled over $7 billion through it, including hackers from the North Korean group [Lazarus](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-izvestno-o-lazarus-group-podozrevaemoj-vo-vzlome-bybit).

In January 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals [lifted the sanctions](https://forklog.com/news/tornado-cash-isklyuchili-iz-sanktsionnyh-spiskov-ofac) citing «exceeding authority» by OFAC and remanded the case to the Western District Court of Texas for further consideration. By April, the agency removed restrictions on the mixer.

At the end of April, a federal court [prohibited](https://forklog.com/news/ofac-zapretili-vozobnovlyat-sanktsii-protiv-tornado-cash) OFAC from reinstating or imposing new sanctions against Tornado Cash.

In May 2022, Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to over five years in prison for laundering $1.2 billion through the mixer. However, in February 2025, he was [released](https://forklog.com/news/razrabotchik-tornado-cash-aleksej-pertsev-vyjdet-na-svobodu-7-fevralya) under electronic monitoring pending appeal. In the same month, EF [donated](https://forklog.com/news/ethereum-foundation-pozhertvoval-1-25-mln-na-zashhitu-razrabotchika-tornado-cash) $1.25 million toward his legal defense.

«The right to privacy is fundamental, and writing code is not a crime,» the organization reiterated in its statement.

It’s worth noting that in October 2024, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin [donated](https://forklog.com/news/vitalik-buterin-pozhertvoval-100-eth-na-zashhitu-razhruzhikov-tornado-cash) 100 ETH (approximately $242,000 at that time) to the legal defense fund for Pertsev and Storm.