Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, is calling for an additional 1.5 million USD to cover legal costs as his trial enters its third week in New York. Previously, the cryptocurrency community had raised over 3.9 million USD. The trial could set a precedent for the criminalization of open-source privacy tools, threatening privacy and innovation in DeFi.
Storm is accused of money laundering, violating sanctions, and operating an illegal money transfer service. However, the legal team argues that Tornado Cash is a decentralized protocol, not a business, and that the source code is protected by the First Amendment.
Another co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, has been convicted in the Netherlands and is appealing. The other one, Roman Semenov, is wanted by the FBI. The trial is expected to conclude before August 11.
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