Roman Storm, one of the developers behind the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer, is asking the public to help him raise legal defense funding before his July 14 federal trial begins. Storm faces charges of money laundering and sanctions violations and is looking for $1.5 million in donations over the next few weeks to sustain his legal fight against the US DOJ.
In a post on X Saturday, Storm wrote, “We’re facing a critical shortfall. I need to raise $500K in the next few days and $1.5M within a couple of weeks to sustain our fight, covering legal fees, expert witnesses, and research as the case extends beyond the initial 2-week projection.”
The developer reiterated that his case is beyond his own personal defense.
“My team is working nonstop to defend code as free speech, protect software development, and push back against government overreach that threatens us all,” he reckoned, directing followers to the donation site.
Crypto community and KOLs behind Tornado Cash developer
Storm’s appeal has garnered several responses from figures and organizations within the crypto community, with most of them pledging their financial support in the social media campaign.
If Roman Storm loses his case (and custody isn't required for "money transmitting"), bitcoin miners will be the next target. https://t.co/BaKDCGHQCL
— Mallard Beakman ₿⚡🥕 (@Bill_Fowler_) July 12, 2025
Bill Warren, a developer and contributor to Meta Cartel DAO, revealed the organization had used all of the funds in its treasury to support Storm’s legal cause.
“Our DAO Meta Cartel gave all we had left in our treasury to support this case… if you actually believe in privacy and decentralization, please contribute,” Warren posted.
Julian Zawistowski of the Golem Foundation confirmed that his team had donated 50 ETH.
“We’ve always walked the walk when it comes to important causes. Octant App is the best example of that. Time for others in our industry to step up too,” Zawistowski stated.
An Ethereum developer quoted the 35-year-old software engineer’s message and told followers that if they “can find $500M for pump in 12 minutes,” he hoped they could “find a couple million for Roman.” He concluded his post saying the Ethereum Foundation would be matching donations over the weekend.
Telegram evidence puts the prosecution in jeopardy
Days before the trial, Storm’s lawyers tried to dismiss evidence from the US government in the form of Telegram messages, arguing that they were improperly handled. They sent a letter to the Southern District Court of New York on July 12 to present their “unreliable evidence” argument.
One of the messages mentioned in the letter talked about a $600 million Axie Infinity hack, which the government claims was authored by Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev and sent to Storm and co-founder Roman Semenov.
According to the indictment, Pertsev supposedly wrote via an encrypted app, “Heya, anyone around to chat about axie? Would like to ask a few general questions about how one goes about cashing out 600 mil.”
Yet, the defense is adamant that the message was a forwarded Telegram post originally written by a CoinDesk reporter, and not Pertsev.
“The government’s self-selected extraction does not show the author of forwarded Telegram messages,” Storm’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “The misleading nature of the extracted Telegram chat messages is demonstrated by the fact that the government itself has wrongfully attributed the origin of the purported message.”
The prosecution apologized for making a formatting error during the discovery process, but told the court that the final evidence provided to the defense in December 2024 was “plainly adopted by Pertsev.”
“We’re being contacted by CoinDesk,” which included the forwarded message in question.
Prosecutors are pressing for their case to be included in the Tuesday hearing, telling the court that “one of the co-conspirators asked, sum and substance, I’d like to ask you some questions about how you go about laundering $600 million worth of stolen crypto.”
KEY Difference Wire: the secret tool crypto projects use to get guaranteed media coverage
