Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated 100 ETH to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's legal defense fund.
In a new thread on social media platform X, Storm, who helped launch an anonymous ETH-based #cryptocurrency mixing protocol in 2019, thanked Buterin for his continued support.
I can't express how much this means to me. Thank you for all your support over the years.
According to the Free Pertsev and Storm X account, this donation is the third time Buterin has supported the developers of the struggling Tornado Cache.
In 2022, the U. S. government sanctioned coin tumblers, citing national security concerns. At the time, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said that more than $7 billion in digital assets had been laundered through the protocol since its launch, including funds transferred by Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker network. The protocol's developers have been indicted, including Storm, who was arrested last year along with another Tornado Cash developer, Roman Semenov, on suspicion of helping Lazarus Group launder illicit funds.
The legitimate fund, hosted on decentralized fundraising platform Juicebox, has raised more than $800,000 in #Ethereum at the time of writing. According to the people behind the fundraiser, Storm's legal fees have risen to $500,000 a month, and he may need another $2 million to $ 3 million to wrap up the case.
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