On April 28, 2025, the DeFi Education Fund appealed to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to stop the persecution of open-source software developers, specifically Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm. In a letter to White House crypto advisor David Sachs, the organization noted that criminalizing developers for the use of their code by third parties stifles innovation in the U.S. and contradicts previous FinCEN guidance, which does not classify P2P protocols as money transmitters.
Storm, who was accused in 2023 of laundering $1 billion through Tornado Cash, is awaiting trial in July 2025. The DeFi Education Fund claims that such actions by the U.S. Department of Justice, initiated under the Biden administration, create a dangerous precedent that threatens all open-source developers, regardless of the industry. More than 70 industry leaders, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, supported the letter.
The organization praised Trump for his pro-cryptocurrency stance, particularly for his ambition to make the U.S. a global crypto hub, but emphasized that these goals are unattainable if developers are subjected to persecution. In January 2025, a federal court in Texas ruled that sanctions against Tornado Cash exceeded the authority of the U.S. Treasury, adding weight to the arguments of DeFi Education.
Subscribe to #MiningUpdates for the latest news!
