Solana allocates $500 000 to defend Tornado Cash developers

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• The Solana Policy Institute has allocated $500 000 to defend Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.
• The Free Roman Storm Fund has raised $5,5 million of the $7 million needed for legal defense.
• Ethereum Foundation, Vitalik Buterin, and Paradigm have also made large donations.

The Free Roman Storm Fund, created to provide legal support to Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, has raised nearly $5,5 million of the $7 million required.

Both individuals and large crypto organizations joined the fundraising effort. The latest significant contribution was a donation from the Solana Policy Institute, which allocated $500 000 to pay for Alexey Pertsev’s appeal and post-trial proceedings in the Storm case.

On August 6, the court found Storm guilty of operating an unregistered money transfer service. Earlier, in 2024, Pertsev was convicted of laundering funds through Tornado Cash, a protocol for concealing the origin of crypto transactions.

Support from Ethereum and the industry

In June, the Ethereum Foundation already transferred $500 000 and promised to double future donations to Storm’s fund up to $750 000. After the verdict, the organization confirmed its readiness to additionally double donations by $500 000.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 150 ETH (about $673 000). Other figures also expressed their support: Golem founder Julian Zawistowski sent 50 ETH ($224 000), DAO Meta Cartel gave its entire treasury balance, and venture capital firm Paradigm contributed $1,25 million back in January.

Developer Federico Carrone, who is under arrest in Turkey, promised to transfer $500 000.

Source: freeromanstorm.com

DOJ clarifies limits of developers’ liability

The Tornado Cash case showed that developers can be found guilty of creating code that was subsequently used by third parties to launder money. This raised concerns that any author of open-source software risks being held liable for the actions of users.

This position contrasts with a recent statement by the US Department of Justice. Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti emphasized that “generally, developers of neutral tools, with no criminal intent, should not be held responsible for someone else’s misuse of those tools.” According to him, the agency will only prosecute intentional violations — fraud, money laundering, or circumvention of sanctions.

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The Justice Department also noted that criminal law should not be used as a tool to regulate the crypto industry.