Weeks before the trial, the Roman storm of Tornado Cash seems alarm: “ If I lose, defies with me ”

The co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, published on Friday one of his most striking reprimands of the Ministry of Justice of the Trump administration, arguing that if the federal prosecutors prevail in the developer’s next criminal trial, decentralized finance could be permanently destroyed.

“The Doj wants to bury Defi, saying that I should have checked it, added KYC, (and) never built it,” wrote Storm. “SDNY tries to crash, blocking each expert witness.”

“If I lose, Defi puts me in the process of seeing me,” continued the developer of cryptography. “The dream of financial freedom, the code I thought – everything fades in darkness. It is not only my end; it is ours.”

Storm was billed by the Doj in 2023 of a conspiracy in order to commit money laundering, to exploit an company of silver issuer without license and to escape American sanctions, for its role in the management of Tornado Cash – a popular service which allows users to make their transactions in mind. Although such platforms for mixing parts are popular among privacy defenders, they were also used by criminal organizations and American state enemies North Korea.

Earlier this year, after President Donald Trump resumed energy and ordered numerous federal agencies to support the digital asset industry, the DOJ farm Its application unit dedicated to the crypto and ordered prosecutors to no longer pursue criminal charges against parts mixing parts for “acts of their end users”.

Many crypto have taken the change of policy as a signal that the doj could soon forgive the storm. Immediately after returning to the office, Trump pardoned Ross UlbrichtThe founder of Silk Road, a black market website powered by Bitcoin.

But the forgiveness of Storm has never materialized. Trump’s DOJ last month said He would advance his file against the co-founder of Tornado Cash, having deleted only one element of a single accusation that he did not comply with the registration requirements of the company transmitting the money.

Storm and other Defi defenders argued that the accusation unfairly holds the developers of software responsible for the way their software is used. Last year, another promoter of Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev, was sentenced by a Dutch court who judge The site was “intended for criminals”.

Friday, in an article on the social media platform X, the Ethereum Foundation said that it gave $ 500,000 to the Storm Defense Fund and that it would correspond to an additional $ 750,000 of community donations. “Confidentiality is normal and code writing is not a crime,” tweeted the non -profit organization.

While President Trump has made several pro-defi measures in recent months, the signing of a bill repeal An IRS rule protested by the sector and supporting cryptographic legislation with sculpture For decentralized financing protocols – industry defenders now warn that successful prosecution of figures like Storm could affect the operational principles of DEFI.

When reached by Decipher And asked if he now perceives that the Trump administration was hostile to Defi, on the basis of his prosecution prosecuted, Storm has referred to a recent legal deposit Made by the DEFI Education Fund, an industry lobbying group, in the continuous appeal of PERSEV of its conviction by Alexey in the Netherlands.

“Should we remove everything from the market known to be used by criminals for illegal activities?” The deposit can be read “(s) software developers should not be held criminally responsible for third -party actions who use their software to commit crimes.”

Update (June 13, 2025, 6:58 p.m.): Add information on the contribution of the Ethereum Foundation to the Defense Fund.

Edited by James Rubin