Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Donates 30 ETH to Support Tornado Cash Devs’ Legal Defense

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated 30 ETH, worth approximately $113,000, to support the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm through decentralized fundraising platform Juicebox.

According to on-chain data, practical From an address associated with Buterin, called Vitalik.eth, sent at 1:58 AM EST on May 30 to the legal website “Free Alexey & Roman” finance on Juicebox, which raised 595.82 ETH, worth approximately $2.2 million.

Open source is not a crime

Cryptocurrency experts, including Buterin, have consistently defended privacy tools for managing crypto assets in particular. Buterin has published several papers on enhancing Ethereum's privacy. Hence his move is not surprising.

Other supporters showed their solidarity by attaching messages of encouragement to their donations. Underneath their contributions, phrases like “You have our support,” “Code Not Guilty,” “Support freedom,” and “Open source is a form of freedom of expression that everyone deserves” resonate strongly.

This is not the first time Buterin has donated to a similar cause. In 2022, it is Contributed 10 Ethereum (worth $30,980 at the time) to a legal fund “AssangeDAO” on Juicebox, which supports Australian activist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Legal Trouble for Tornado Cash Heads

Tornado Cash is a privacy-focused tool that facilitates anonymous cryptocurrency transactions. However, its potential for abuse has led to it being exploited by criminals to launder, hack or steal money. This illicit activity has drawn the attention of law enforcement, prompting the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to impose sanctions on Tornado Cash in August 2022.

Shortly thereafter, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was arrested in Amsterdam for allegedly concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the controversial Ethereum mixing service.

A year later, two other developers – Roman Storm and Roman Semenov – were accused of helping to launder $1 billion, and Storm was arrested in Washington state. Burtsev was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Storm has remained in US custody since his arrest in 2023, and is scheduled to stand trial in September.