The Ethereum Foundation has joined forces with Keyring network to fund the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev. For the next two months, 100% of protocol fees from Keyring's zkVerified vaults on the Ethereum mainnet will be directed to the defense fund, allowing users to contribute through DeFi activities while earning APY rewards. As of the announcement, the initiative had raised $22,109.52.
Tornado Cash, a decentralized cryptocurrency mixer built on Ethereum, was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for allegedly facilitating money laundering, including by North Korea's Lazarus Group. Roman Storm was convicted in the US on one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in August, while Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court in May 2024; both are appealing. The Ethereum Foundation stated, "By linking the growth of new financial tools with the protection of the people who build them, Keyring demonstrates that communities can strengthen resilience while driving innovation forward."
This effort builds on earlier contributions, including a $500,000 pledge from the Ethereum Foundation and a $500,000 donation from the Solana Policy Institute. The case has sparked global debates on developer liability for open-source software, amid signs of a softer US prosecutorial stance, with a Justice Department official recently stating that "writing code is not a crime."