In 2022, the United States sanctioned the Tornado Cash mixing service, accusing it of facilitating money laundering. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently made another contribution to Roman Storm's defense fund, the developer of Tornado Cash, by transferring 100 ETH for his legal defense, which is approximately $240,000 USD. This is Buterin's third donation to the fund.
According to the "Defend Roman Storm" crowdfunding page, the fund has raised over 327 ETH from 148 different donations, which at the time of writing amounted to approximately $785,000 USD. Storm expressed his gratitude for the support.
U.S. Judge Katherine Failla rejected Storm's request to dismiss the case, and the process is ongoing. Storm maintains his innocence, arguing that Tornado Cash is open-source software available to any user and not controlled by the developers.
If found guilty, Storm faces up to 45 years in prison, which has caused serious concern within the crypto community.
