A U.S. federal judge has rescheduled the retrial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm to April 26, 2027, delaying the proceedings by roughly six months as his motion to overturn an existing money transmitting conviction remains pending.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the defense request on Aug. 25, moving the trial from an October 2026 timetable after Storm's lawyers cited scheduling conflicts and pointed to the undecided Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal. The final pretrial conference is now set for April 20, 2027, six days before jury selection.
Storm was convicted in August 2025 on one count of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum five-year sentence. The jury deadlocked on two more serious counts: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, each carrying up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors had sought a retrial in October 2026, but the judge adopted the defense's requested date.
Storm's pending motion, filed Sept. 30, 2025, argues prosecutors presented insufficient evidence to sustain the money transmitting conviction. Oral arguments were heard on April 9, 2026, but Failla has not yet ruled. If granted, the conviction could be set aside before the retrial.
The case stems from Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy protocol that prosecutors say processed more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group. Storm has argued the protocol operated through immutable smart contracts and that developers did not control transactions or custody funds.
In a related filing, Storm's attorneys cited a Supreme Court ruling in a copyright case against Cox Communications, arguing the decision supports the view that service providers should not be held liable for user misuse. Storm also pointed to Chainalysis's prior role as a Tornado Cash relayer, claiming a double standard because the blockchain analytics firm helped build the government's case while earning fees from the protocol.
Supporters including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation have backed Storm's legal defense, which reportedly raised more than $6.3 million. The Treasury Department removed Tornado Cash sanctions in March 2025 after a federal appeals court ruled immutable smart contracts could not be considered property under IEEPA, but the criminal prosecution continued.
