Ethereum Foundation Donates $500K to Support Tornado Cash Developer’s Legal Defense

In Brief:

Ethereum Foundation backs Roman Storm with $500K donation ahead of July trial.

It will also match community donations up to $750K, defending privacy and open-source coding.

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Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm is set to face trial in New York on July 14, and support from the Ethereum community is ramping up. The Ethereum Foundation has donated $500,000 to support his legal defense and pledged to match community contributions up to an additional $750,000.

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The foundation emphasized its stance by declaring, “Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.” Roman Storm, who helped develop the open-source privacy protocol Tornado Cash, is being prosecuted in a landmark case that many in the crypto space see as an attack on developer rights and financial privacy. The outcome of the trial could set a precedent for the future of open-source privacy tools in crypto.