Solana Policy Institute Donates $500K to Tornado Cash Developers’ Trial

The Solana Policy Institute has donated $500,000 to help defend Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey ￰0￱ donation comes in the wake of recent court decisions that found the developers guilty of crimes related to their work with Tornado ￰1￱ is worth noting that the institute supports clear rules for cryptocurrency and digital ￰2￱ donations will help ensure a fair legal process and oppose the growing risk of blaming developers for how their code is used after it is ￰3￱ also highlights a concern in crypto about punishing people for building open-source ￰4￱ Pressure on Tornado Cash Founders Mounts Storm created Tornado Cash in 2019 alongside co-developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman ￰5￱ developers were inspired by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s advocacy for enhanced crypto privacy ￰6￱ was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in May 20224 and is currently appealing under electronic ￰7￱ the other hand, Semenov remains at large and is listed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) wanted list.

meanwhile, Tornado Cash had been sanctioned by the U. S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2022 due to its alleged use by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group. However, those sanctions were overturned in January following a successful civil ￰8￱ Consider Retrial for Tornado Cash Developer Earlier in the month, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) started considering a retrial for Roman Storm after a partial verdict left two major charges ￰9￱ was convicted on one felony count, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

However, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate ￰10￱ against North Korea. Notably, Storm’s trial has been closely watched by the cryptocurrency industry and digital privacy ￰11￱ Community Rallies Support for Roman Storm In July, Roman Storm issued an urgent appeal for financial support ahead of his high-stakes trial, where he faces charges of money laundering and violating ￰12￱ mentioned that he needs to raise the $500k immediately and will require an additional $1 million to sustain his legal ￰13￱ far, Storm’s fundraising efforts have reached approximately $1.96 million, representing 57% of his $3.5 million ￰14￱ have been made in Ether, with the price fluctuating based on market ￰15￱ that the Ethereum Foundation announced that it would contribute $500,000 towards the co-founder’s legal ￰16￱ foundation also promised to match community donations up to $750,000.

Additionally, Bill Warren of MetaCartel DAO confirmed that the organization has allocated all remaining funds in its treasury to support Storm’s ￰17￱ underlined the case’s significance within the crypto and open-source communities.