Vitalik Buterin donates $170K to Tornado Cash developers’ legal fund
Vitalik Buterin donated 50 Ether (ETH), approximately $170,000, to the legal defense fund for Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev. This contribution represents about 25% of the $650,000 raised through JusticeDAO for Pertsev's trial. Pertsev was arrested in 2022 and found guilty of money laundering in May 2024, receiving a sentence of over five years, which he plans to appeal. Storm faces similar charges, including money laundering and sanctions violations, with his trial set for April 14. The US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, citing its use by bad actors to launder over $7 billion in crypto. The sanctions have sparked significant backlash within the crypto community, leading to lawsuits against the Treasury by Coin Center and Tornado Cash users. Buterin previously donated 100 ETH to the fundraising effort in October, while a GoFundMe campaign was shut down in February.
