Written by: Brian Danga
Translated by: Block unicorn
Summary
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an open letter on Friday in support of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Storm was convicted in August for allegedly conspiring to commit illegal money transmission and faces up to five years in prison.
Storm's defense fund has raised over $6.3 million (as of 2025) from supporters, including Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation. Meanwhile, law enforcement efforts targeting privacy-focused crypto tools are intensifying globally.
Vitalik'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 for allegedly conspiring to commit illegal money transmission and is currently awaiting sentencing from a U.S. court.
Storm was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in August 2023 and remains out on bail, with the judge ruling that he is not a flight risk, though he still faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Vitalik positioned the core of the prosecution in this case as being against software development itself, rather than the direct economic harm caused. Storm is a co-founder of Tornado Cash, a non-custodial cryptocurrency mixer that U.S. authorities claim was used to launder over $1 billion in illegal funds. In August of this year, a jury found Storm guilty of illegal money transmission, but could not reach a consensus on other money laundering and sanctions charges.
Vitalik characterized privacy tools like Tornado Cash as necessary defenses against systemic data exploitation, noting that he has used Roman's software to purchase technical tools and support human rights charities, and that this data was not recorded in corporate or government databases.
"I have supported Roman Storm's work from the very beginning because I firmly believe in the importance of privacy, and I am also an active user of privacy tools, including those developed by Roman," Vitalik wrote. "Unlike some who exploit these causes as an excuse for profit, developing flashy but fundamentally flawed software, Roman's applications remain usable even years after he stopped developing them—this alone, in my view, makes him more respectable than many of today's so-called 'consumer tech' products."
As Privacy Tools Face Increasing Legal Pressure, Industry Support is Forming
Vitalik's letter places Storm's case within a broader argument that data protection should be viewed as a fundamental infrastructure rather than a niche political issue. He wrote that for decades, the ability to control personal information has been a default state, describing modern privacy tools as attempts to retain protections that existed before widespread digital surveillance.
In the letter, Vitalik stated that these protections are neither novel nor extreme, but rather historical safeguards applicable to personal communication, physical movement, and financial activities.
Vitalik's support extends beyond testimony. In December 2024, he donated 50 Ethereum (ETH) to Storm's legal defense fund, valued at approximately $170,000 at the time. The nonprofit Ethereum Foundation donated $500,000 to the fund in June of last year and pledged to match community donations up to $750,000. 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 official website, Storm's defense fund raised over $6.39 million in 2025 alone. Blockchain privacy researcher Federico Carrone stated that he donated $500,000 to Storm's defense fund, in addition to a previous commitment of $50,000 from his venture studio LambdaClass, further increasing the total. The Solana Policy Institute announced in August 2025 that it had donated $500,000 to support Storm and Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev.
This wave of support comes as global crackdowns on privacy tool developers intensify. Storm's co-founder Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court in 2024 for money laundering related to $1.2 billion in transactions between July 2019 and August 2022.
In the U.S., the co-founder of Samourai Wallet was arrested in April 2024 for money laundering. Prosecutors alleged that the wallet's mixer processed over $2 billion in illegal funds from 2015 to 2024. Co-founder Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2025, while William Lonergan Hill received a four-year sentence.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups are pushing for legislative protections. In August 2025, over 110 cryptocurrency organizations signed a letter to Senate committee leaders stating that they could not support critical market structure legislation without explicit protections for software developers. Previously, a senior official from the Department of Justice stated that "writing code" is not a crime.
According to reports, U.S. President Donald Trump indicated during a December 2025 Oval Office meeting that he might review cases like that of Keonne Rodriguez from Samourai Wallet when asked if he would grant a pardon, saying, "I've heard about this, and I will take a look."
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