Court partially acquits Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm
Date: 2025-08-07 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
The trial of Roman Storm, one of the creators of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, ended in a controversial outcome. The jury could not reach unanimity on the charge of conspiracy to launder money, but they decided to acquit the developer on the article related to the violation of US sanctions.
Recall that Roman Storm was arrested in August 2023. The investigation accused him of participating in money laundering, violating the sanctions regime, and involvement in the management of an unlicensed money transfer system. Law enforcement officials claimed that Tornado Cash laundered over $1 billion in funds. These funds included assets allegedly stolen by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, which is known for its attacks on cryptocurrency platforms.
Storm's legal team insisted that their client had no technical or legal ability to control the functioning of Tornado Cash. According to them, the crypto mixer itself is decentralized software, and its developer cannot be held liable for the actions of third-party users.
At the same time, the US judiciary continues to fight anonymous crypto services, which, in their opinion, can facilitate sanctions evasion and finance illegal activities. Earlier, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the complaint of the non-profit organization Coin Center, which tried to challenge the decision of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to add Tornado Cash to the sanctions list.
This case has become one of the most important precedents in the legal field of regulation of cryptocurrencies and decentralized services. The outcome of the Roman Storm case may affect the approach of regulators to assessing the responsibility of developers of such solutions, especially in the context of open source code and decentralization. Although some of the charges against Storm remain without a final decision, the fact of his acquittal under the sanctions article may be a signal for the crypto industry: the legal assessment of the role of developers in the functioning of decentralized services is still far from unambiguous.
