Vitalik Buterin Donates 100 ETH to Support Tornado Cash Developer's Legal Defense Fund

Vitalik Buterin, the co-creator of Ethereum, recently donated 100 ETH to help support the legal defense fund of Roman Storm, a developer of Tornado Cash.

In a heartfelt post on X, Storm expressed his gratitude, saying, “I can’t describe how much it means to me. Thank you for your long-lasting support.” It’s clear that this support means a lot to him.

This donation is actually the third time Buterin has stepped up for the Tornado Cash developers. Back in 2022, the U.S. government sanctioned Tornado Cash due to national security concerns. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claimed that over $7 billion in digital assets had been laundered through the protocol, including funds linked to the North Korean hacking group known as the Lazarus Group.

As a result of these sanctions, several developers, including Storm, faced legal charges. Storm was arrested last year along with another developer, Roman Semenov, for allegedly helping the Lazarus Group launder illicit funds.

The legal defense fund, hosted on Juicebox, a decentralized fundraising platform, has raised over $800,000 in Ethereum so far. The team behind the fund noted that Storm’s legal expenses have climbed to about $500,000 per month. They estimate he may need an additional $2 to $3 million to continue his defense.

Earlier this year, Buterin donated 30 ETH, which was worth around $113,678 at the time, to the fund supporting Storm and another developer, Pertsev. Recently, a judge in the Netherlands sentenced Pertsev to over five years in prison for creating a platform that allegedly allowed criminals to launder money.