Brief
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an open letter on Friday in support of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Storm was convicted in August of conspiracy to commit illicit money transfer and faces up to five years in prison.
Storm's defense funding comes from backers including Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation, totaling over $6.3 million (as of 2025). Meanwhile, enforcement efforts against privacy-focused crypto tools are increasing globally.
Vitalik Buterin's Open Letter
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an open letter on Friday in support of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm.
Storm was convicted in August of conspiracy to illegally transfer money and is currently awaiting sentencing in a U.S. court. Storm was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in August 2023 and remains on bail. The judge ruled that he poses no flight risk, but he could still face up to five years in prison. Vitalik Buterin (V God) focused the prosecution on the software development itself, rather than the direct financial losses. Storm is the co-founder of Tornado Cash, a non-custodial cryptocurrency mixer that U.S. authorities allege was used to launder over $1 billion in illicit funds. In August, a jury found Storm guilty of illegally transferring funds but failed to reach a unanimous verdict on other money laundering and sanctions charges. Vitalik Buterin positions privacy tools like Tornado Cash as essential defenses against systemic data exploitation, noting that he has used Roman Storm's software to purchase technology tools and support human rights charities, data that is not recorded in corporate or government databases. "I have supported Roman Storm's work from the beginning because I firmly believe in the importance of privacy, and I am an active user of privacy tools, including those developed by Roman," Buterin wrote. “Unlike some who use these endeavors as a pretext for profit, developing software with flashy ads but riddled with underlying vulnerabilities, Roman’s app remains available years after he stopped development—for that alone, I think he is more respectable than many of today’s so-called ‘consumer tech’ products.” As privacy tools face increasing legal pressure, industry support is forming. Vitalik Buterin’s letter places Storm’s case within a broader argument that data protection should be seen as fundamental infrastructure, not a niche political issue. He writes that the ability to control personal information has been a default state for decades, describing modern privacy tools as attempts to preserve safeguards that existed before widespread digital surveillance. In the letter, Buterin states that these safeguards are neither new nor extreme, but rather described as safeguards historically applicable to personal communications, physical mobility, and financial activities. Buterin’s support goes beyond mere testimony. In December 2024, he donated 50 ETH to Storm's legal defense fund, worth approximately $170,000 at the time. The non-profit Ethereum Foundation donated $500,000 to the fund last June and pledged to match $750,000 in community donations. In October 2025, the Ethereum Foundation and Keyring jointly launched a legal defense fund specifically for Tornado Cash developers. The scope of support has expanded beyond the Ethereum ecosystem. According to the fund's website, in 2025 alone, Storm's defense fund raised over $6.39 million. Blockchain privacy researcher Federico Carrone stated that he donated $500,000 to Storm's defense fund, further increasing the total amount, combined with the $50,000 previously pledged by his venture capital firm, LambdaClass. In August 2025, the Solana Policy Institute announced a $500,000 donation to support Alexey Pertsev, co-founder of Storm and Tornado Cash. This wave of support comes amid escalating global crackdowns on privacy tool developers. Pertsev, co-founder of Storm, was sentenced to 64 months in prison in 2024 by a Dutch court on money laundering charges related to $1.2 billion in transactions between July 2019 and August 2022. In the United States, the co-founder of Samourai Wallet was arrested in April 2024 on money laundering charges. Prosecutors alleged that the wallet's mixer processed over $2 billion in illicit funds between 2015 and 2024. Co-founder Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2025, while William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to four years. Meanwhile, advocacy groups are pushing for legislative safeguards. In August 2025, more than 110 cryptocurrency institutions jointly wrote to Senate committee leaders, stating that they could not support key market structure legislation without clear protections for software developers. This followed a statement from a senior Justice Department official that “writing code” is not a crime. As previously reported, when asked in an Oval Office meeting in December 2025 whether he would pardon Keonne Rodriguez of Samourai Wallet, US President Donald Trump indicated he might review such cases, saying, “I’ve heard about it, I’ll take a look.”
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