Arbitrum DAO Removes Proposal To Donate $1.28M to Tornado Cash
A controversial proposal by an Arbitrum contributor to donate cryptocurrency towards the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers has been withdrawn. The proposal, authored by Joseph Axisa, sought to allocate 200,000 to 600,000 ARB tokens (roughly $400,000 to $1.2 million) to a legal defense fund for Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.
Storm and Pertsev, along with a third co-founder still at large, face criminal charges in the Netherlands for their involvement with Tornado Cash. The platform is a cryptocurrency mixing service that allows users to obfuscate transaction trails on Ethereum.
Sources familiar with the matter attributed the proposal's removal to concerns among token holders regarding potential legal risks associated with such a donation. The post advocating for the donation disappeared from Arbitrum's forum by March 8. The proposed funds were intended for WeWantJusticeDAO, a crowdfunded initiative supporting the legal defense of Storm and Pertsev.
Despite the withdrawal, discussions within ArbitrumDAO regarding alternative funding methods continue. One possibility involves directing funds to Coin Center, a non-profit organization focused on crypto policy.
