{"id":36922,"date":"2025-07-15T08:01:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=36922"},"modified":"2025-07-15T08:01:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:01:48","slug":"battle-for-freedom-tornado-cash-founder-seeks-1-5m-in-donations-ahead-of-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=36922","title":{"rendered":"Battle For Freedom: Tornado Cash Founder Seeks $1.5M In Donations Ahead Of Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has called the crypto community and privacy advocates to help him raise an additional $1 million in the coming weeks to continue his legal defense and the battle for privacy tools.<\/p>\n

Tornado Cash Founder Faces Fundraising Shortfall<\/h2>\n

The co-founder of crypto mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, has updated his fundraising target and is pushing to raise over $1 million to continue funding his legal battle. Over the weekend, Storm revealed that his team is facing a \u201ccritical shortfall\u201d ahead of the start of his July trial.<\/p>\n

The Tornado Cash co-founder explained<\/a> that he needs to raise $500,000 in the next few days and $1.5 million within a couple of weeks to cover escalating legal fees, expert witnesses, and research.<\/p>\n

\"tornado<\/p>\n

He detailed that his planned 2-week trial, scheduled to begin on July 14, is now expected to last 3-4 weeks due to \u201ccomplex legal arguments and unforeseen witnesses and evidence.\u201d As a result, expenses for expert testimonies, thorough research, and his legal team have significantly increased.<\/p>\n

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My team is working nonstop to defend code as free speech, protect software development, and push back against government overreach that threatens us all. If you can help, please donate now \u2013 every contribution counts in this battle for our freedoms.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For context, the US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned<\/a> Tornado Cash in August 2022 for \u201cfailing to impose effective controls\u201d to prevent malicious actors from laundering funds through the protocol, including $455 million by North Korea\u2019s Lazarus Group.<\/p>\n

Storm and the crypto mixer\u2019s developer, Alexey Pertsev, were detained after the sanctions. Pertsev was sentenced to 5 years in the Netherlands after being found guilty of money laundering by the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal in May 2024, and is currently working on his appeal.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Storm was detained in Washington in August 2023 and faces three charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.<\/p>\n

Storm pleaded not guilty to all charges and was freed on a $2 million bond. However, if convicted, he could face up to 45 years in prison. His trial, initially scheduled for December 2024, has been delayed twice.<\/p>\n

Crypto Community Aids Storm\u2019s Legal Defense<\/h2>\n

On Monday, Julian Zawistowski of the Golem Foundation shared<\/a> that they had donated 50 ETH, worth around $150,000, stating that they\u2019ve \u201calways walked the walk when it comes to important causes. (\u2026) Time for others in our industry to step up too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, developer and contributor to Meta Cartel DAO Bill Warren affirmed<\/a> that the organization had donated all the funds in its treasury to support Storm\u2019s case. Warren also urged privacy and decentralization advocates to contribute to the Tornado Cash co-founder\u2019s legal defense.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, crypto investment firm Paradigm donated<\/a> over one million dollars to aid the Tornado Cash co-founder\u2019s legal battle. The firm\u2019s co-founder, Matt Huang, revealed that Paradigm was giving $1.25 million to help fund Storm\u2019s legal defense.<\/p>\n

Notably, the DeFi Education Fund sent a letter signed by multiple industry leaders to AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, urging the White House to end the Department of Justice\u2019s war on open-source developers.<\/p>\n

The April letter affirmed<\/a> that\u00a0trying to hold software developers criminally liable for how third parties use their code\u00a0will set a terrible precedent and \u201cfreeze\u201d technological innovation in the US, which would oppose Trump\u2019s promise to make America \u201cthe crypto capital of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also highlighted that the Southern District of New York\u00a0(SDNY) is continuing its prosecution of Storm with charges related to money transmitting and other liabilities that could punish the Tornado Cash co-founder for the conduct of unrelated bad actors.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, Storm has raised $2.12 million, 61% of the $3.5 million goal for his legal defense fund.<\/p>\n

\"tornado<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has called the crypto community and privacy advocates to help him raise an additional $1 million in the coming weeks to continue his legal defense and the battle for privacy tools. Tornado Cash Founder Faces Fundraising Shortfall The co-founder of crypto mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, has updated his fundraising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-36922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}