Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On August 6, 2025, a jury in the Manhattan Federal Court in New York found Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, guilty in a criminal case. The verdict immediately sparked strong attention and reactions from the entire crypto industry.
Storm is charged with three counts: conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against North Korea. After three weeks of trial, the jury was unable to reach a consensus on the first two felony counts and only made a guilty verdict on 'unlicensed money transmission'. This charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Tornado Cash is a non-custodial privacy tool deployed on Ethereum that allows users to obfuscate transaction paths through smart contracts. It uses zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARKs) technology, where users first deposit funds and then complete withdrawals through credentials, thereby obscuring the source and destination of funds. Tornado Cash itself does not hold funds, and once deployed, it cannot be changed or shut down.
In August 2022, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Tornado Cash to the sanctions list, accusing it of being used for money laundering by hacker organizations like Lazarus. However, in March 2025, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that OFAC exceeded its authority, stating that smart contracts are not property and cannot be sanctioned. Subsequently, OFAC lifted the sanctions against Tornado Cash and removed the relevant Ethereum addresses. However, Roman Storm's legal troubles are far from over.
The announcement of the verdict has once again sparked controversy over the boundaries of law and technology.
Roman Storm is a software engineer and one of the early developers in the crypto industry. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash. Storm developed this project with another co-founder, Roman Semenov, and officially launched it in 2019. Since its launch, Tornado Cash has attracted a large number of users, including attackers, scammers, and even state-sponsored hacker organizations.
After the launch of Tornado Cash, Storm was primarily responsible for building and maintaining the front-end interface, writing technical documentation, and giving media interviews to promote the project in its early stages. He publicly supports blockchain privacy technologies and emphasizes personal financial autonomy. In 2023, Storm was arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice, becoming the first developer to be prosecuted in the Tornado Cash case.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Storm and other developers of continuing to maintain the system while knowing that Tornado Cash was being misused, and assisting in the anonymous transfer of funds through 'front-end services', promotional documents, and other means. The prosecution pointed out that organizations, including the Lazarus Group, used Tornado Cash to launder over $1 billion.
During the trial, the prosecution presented a photo of Storm wearing a 'anonymous laundering' themed T-shirt and attempted to prove that he was aware of the use of funds. The jury ultimately did not reach a consensus on the charges of money laundering and sanctions, and the court announced a failure to adjudicate these two charges.
After the verdict, the prosecution proposed that Storm be detained, citing his birthplace in a former Soviet country (Kazakhstan) and claiming that he 'has the conditions to flee'. Judge Katherine Failla rejected this request, stating that Storm holds a U.S. passport, has long resided in Seattle, and lives with his young daughter, posing no flight risk.
Storm is currently out on bail, and a sentencing date has not yet been determined. His lawyers stated that they plan to challenge the conviction and file an appeal.
The boundaries of developer responsibility are being questioned, and the crypto industry is reacting strongly.
After the verdict was announced, several crypto industry organizations quickly expressed their concerns, questioning the classification of 'unlicensed money transmission'. The controversy centers around one question: should open-source developers be held legally responsible for the use of their code by others?
The DeFi Education Fund stated on X: 'We regret that the jury did not recognize that Storm could not control the actions of third parties.' The organization emphasized: 'Software developers should have the right to write and deploy decentralized financial tools, including protocols with privacy features.'
Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh also believes the charge is 'inappropriate' and calls for an immediate appeal. He stated that Coin Center will use all resources to push the case into the next phase of review.
The Blockchain Association called the ruling 'disappointing' and warned of a chilling effect on all open-source software developers: 'We urge Storm to appeal and stand ready to support.'
Several independent legal experts have also expressed their views on this case. Brian Klein, a partner at Waymaker LLP and Storm's defense attorney, stated: 'The core issue of this case is whether an author can be put on trial because someone else used a piece of code to do something bad.' He believes that current laws do not apply to non-custodial systems like Tornado Cash and plans to continue legal challenges against this charge.
Alex Urbelis, legal counsel for Ethereum Name Service, also pointed out that the jury may not fully understand how non-custodial protocols operate. He stated: 'If the jury could understand that Tornado Cash does not have control over users' assets, there should not have been this conviction.'
It remains unclear whether a retrial will occur next, and preparations for an appeal are underway.
Although the two unconvicted charges are temporarily shelved, the case is far from over. The prosecution has not yet decided whether to seek a retrial on 'money laundering' and 'sanctions violation', but many predict that given the jury's prolonged inability to reach a consensus, the Justice Department may choose to abandon these two.
Storm's reaction has been strong. After the verdict, he quoted Trump, saying he would 'fight, fight, fight'. His defense team stated that Storm will continue to challenge the case in court and calls for industry solidarity to face the issue of unclear regulations.
After Trump took office, there was a tendency to weaken regulation on crypto businesses, and some significant lawsuits were withdrawn or suspended earlier this year. The Storm case has become one of the few major cases still progressing. However, prior to this case, two developers from Samourai Wallet pleaded guilty last week, also facing charges related to 'unlicensed money transmission'. This development has raised greater vigilance in the crypto industry regarding the current strategies of judicial authorities.
Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at crypto investment firm Variant, pointed out that this conviction could serve as a basis for future enforcement by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). He believes that if a developer is sentenced for writing code, it would create immense uncertainty for the entire open-source community.
Currently, Storm's defense team is preparing appeal materials and plans to seek to overturn the verdict. Organizations supporting him are also contacting other legal experts and policy advocates, planning to push for clearer guidelines at the legislative level.
