Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm reiterated that "Open Source software is not guilty," with Vitalik supporting: on-chain privacy is extremely important.

The co-founder of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, is set to stand trial on July 14 in a federal court in Manhattan, New York. On the eve of the trial, Roman Storm reiterated that Tornado Cash is non-custodial open-source software; Ethereum founder Vitalik also spoke out for him, stating that on-chain privacy is important and the government should not convict Roman Storm. (Background: The mixer Tornado Cash has won a perfect victory! Texas court: The U.S. Treasury cannot impose sanctions again) (Background supplement: Is the storm surrounding the mixer Tornado Cash not over? Coinbase angrily criticizes: The U.S. Treasury is handling it ambiguously, evading the final ruling.) The co-founder of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, is about to stand trial on July 14 in a federal court in Manhattan, New York. The U.S. Department of Justice believes that Tornado Cash assisted the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. Roman Storm thus faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmission business, and violating U.S. sanctions. Focus of the charges: The prosecution claims that Storm and Tornado Cash concealed the flow of funds through the mixing mechanism, equivalent to operating an unlicensed money transmission business, and violated sanctions against North Korea. However, Storm denies all charges, emphasizing that Tornado Cash is non-custodial open-source software and that he has not profited from illegal funds. He bluntly stated: "If I lose, DeFi will perish with me." At the same time, Storm's legal team also argues based on the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that writing and publishing open source code is a form of free speech. Additionally, they cite guidance from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2019, stating that "pure software anonymization service providers" do not fall under the category of money transmission regulation and do not need to obtain a license. In this regard, on the eve of the hearing, Storm again emphasized on July 3 on the X platform: "FinCEN's 2019 guidance clearly states that software anonymization services do not need to comply with money transmission licenses, and we firmly believe that we have not stepped into a risky area." Vitalik supports Storm in this regard, as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also spoke out for Storm through X, calling Storm's recent interview with Crypto in America "great" and reiterating the importance of on-chain privacy. Buterin stated: Storm's interview was very exciting. His trial is about to begin in 10 days. Privacy of messaging without backdoors is now widely accepted, and many in business and government regularly use tools like Signal. Given the extremely regular hacks of centralized databases that we see… — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 4, 2025. It is also worth mentioning that Vitalik, Paradigm founder Matt Huang, and the Ethereum Foundation have actively donated to Storm's legal defense fund. As of the end of June 2025, the fund has raised over $750,000. This funding will be used to hire a top legal team in preparation for the upcoming trial. Currently, there is a general belief that if Storm is convicted, open-source developers may avoid the privacy protocol field to evade risks, and the pace of DeFi innovation may slow down; conversely, if Storm wins, the U.S. judicial system will draw a wider line of protection for open-source privacy tools. Regardless of the outcome, the case will force regulators and the industry to re-examine the positioning of "privacy, compliance, and security" in the digital economy and become an important reference for global discussions on Web3 regulatory frameworks. The verdict is about to be announced, and everyone concerned with on-chain privacy and financial innovation is waiting for the Manhattan court to provide answers that could impact the next decade. Related reports Bybit theft: Elliptic: North Korean hackers launder money using mixers, next step: payment processors + large-scale OTC freezes are coming. What is a crypto mixer? How it works & types, money laundering regulatory risks, representative projects... all sorted. Bybit offers a reward of 10% to recover stolen funds, mixer eXch refuses to intercept stolen assets causing controversy. (The co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, reiterates that "open source software is innocent," and Vitalik supports: on-chain privacy is crucial.) This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.