Alexey Pertsev, a key developer behind the controversial crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash, has been granted conditional release from pretrial detention in the Netherlands after spending nine months in custody.
The release, effective 7 February 2025, comes as Pertsev prepares for his appeal against the charges he faces.
While Pertsev will now be allowed to continue his legal fight outside of prison, his freedom is far from unrestricted.
The court has imposed electronic monitoring as a condition for his release.
Pertsev himself shared the news on social media, stating,
“I will be free! It is not real freedom, but it is better than prison.”
He expressed a commitment to use this time to work on his appeal, adding,
“This will give me a chance to work on my appeal and fight for justice.”
The case has garnered significant attention, both in the crypto community and beyond.
Pertsev faces accusations of facilitating the laundering of approximately $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency through Tornado Cash between 2019 and 2022.
Tornado Cash, which was designed to offer privacy in crypto transactions, has been scrutinised for its alleged use in illegal activities.
The court has maintained that Pertsev and his team should have implemented stricter controls to prevent such misuse of the protocol.
Despite this, Pertsev has argued that he should not be held responsible for the criminal actions of third parties who used Tornado Cash.
This defence, however, was rejected by the court, which sentenced him to 64 months in prison.
His legal team is now preparing to challenge the conviction in the upcoming appeal.
While Pertsev continues his fight in the Netherlands, his colleague Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, faces his own legal challenges in the United States.
Roman Storm
Storm, who is currently out on a $2 million bond, is set to go to trial in April.
Like Pertsev, Storm is accused of facilitating the laundering of over $1 billion through the platform.
Tornado Cash has also faced significant legal hurdles in the US.
In late 2024, a federal appeals court ruled that the US Treasury Department had overstepped by sanctioning Tornado Cash.
The court determined that the platform's smart contracts, which are immutable lines of code, cannot be classified as "property" under existing law.
This ruling was seen as a win for privacy technologies, which have faced growing regulatory scrutiny in recent years.
However, legal experts caution that this ruling does not clear Tornado Cash or its founders of wrongdoing.
Bill Hughes, an attorney for ConsenSys, noted,
“The ruling doesn’t absolve Tornado Cash of being a service. It only establishes that the smart contracts weren’t property. The Department of Justice (DOJ) still alleges Storm knowingly operated a platform in violation of sanctions.”
As Pertsev and Storm continue their legal battles, the future of Tornado Cash is up in the air.
The case has sparked ongoing discussions about privacy, regulation, and how much responsibility crypto developers should bear for how their technology is used.
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