Ethereum Foundation Supports Tornado Cash Developer with $1.25M Donation

• The Ethereum Foundation has contributed $1.25 million for legal support that defends Alexey Pertsev.
• The Dutch court convicted Pertsev and he now seeks an appeal for his Tornado Cash development work.
• The crypto public considers this case essential for determining crypto privacy and open-source development rights in the future.

The Ethereum Foundation extended a $1.25 million donation to provide legal defense for Alexey Pertsev who worked on Tornado Cash development. The Foundation demonstrates its dedication to financial privacy and developer rights protection through this notable financial assistance.

Publicly on February 26 the Ethereum Foundation declared developers need protection from legal reprisals when creating decentralized systems. The statement declares that privacy exists naturally along with the lawful practice of coding.

The defendant Pertsev shows deep appreciation for financial backing during his court appeals in the Netherlands. With this financial backing, he can devote all his time to preparing his appeal. I am profoundly grateful to the Ethereum Foundation for their generous support which secured funds that helped my defense during the Netherlands court proceedings. Pertsev expressed his deep appreciation for receiving enough funds which allows him to dedicate all attention to preparing his appeal.

Most members of the crypto community support this decision. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin together with multiple advocates for privacy have expressed their opposition to the legal prosecutions against program developers who work on open-source materials. 0x0 insisted that privacy stands as an essential civil right and that developers should face no consequences for conducting their work through open-source code creation. The upcoming time becomes vital for establishing effective privacy protections within the crypto sector.

Pertsev started facing legal troubles in 2022 when the Treasury Department of the United States sanctioned Tornado Cash because it enabled illegal money transfers. Dutch authorities arrested Pertsev when they charged him with money laundering because he took part in the development of the platform. The Dutch legal system ordered five years of imprisonment for Pertsev in May 2024 because he failed to stop criminal operations through the tool he co-created.

Pertsev obtained his release from detention at the beginning of this month. According to his declaration, the legal costs put a significant burden on his wallet which made community donations necessary to support his defense operations. The acquisition of freedom comes with a great financial burden. He declared that his house arrest existed because of lawyer work that received funding stemming from your donations.

A U.S. court established a new outlook regarding Tornado Cash when they rejected the Treasury’s sanctions against the protocol this past year. Judicial actions declared that the government went beyond its regulatory limits by enforcing rules against blockchains in particular instead of controlling entities and persons. The legal decision has potential implications for existing cryptocurrency privacy protection technologies during future trials and proceedings.