Vitalik Buterin warns against prosecuting Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm, arguing the case could set dangerous precedent for crypto developers and privacy tools.
Tornado Cash developer
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made a rare public legal intervention, submitting a pre-sentencing statement in defense of Roman Storm, a developer facing potential prison time for his work on Tornado Cash. Filed on January 9, 2026, Buterin's appeal argues that prosecutors are criminalizing software creation rather than proving direct financial harm—a distinction that could reshape how the crypto industry approaches privacy technology.
Storm's case has become a flashpoint in the debate over developer liability. Tornado Cash, a decentralized mixing protocol on Ethereum, was used by individuals seeking transaction privacy—but also exploited by bad actors for money laundering. The question before the court: should the creator of a neutral tool be held responsible for its misuse?
Buterin's statement emphasizes that open-source code, once published, operates independently of its creator. Holding developers accountable for all downstream uses, he warns, could stifle innovation across the entire crypto ecosystem. The precedent set here may influence how regulators treat privacy-focused infrastructure, decentralized protocols, and developer rights globally.
For the Ethereum community, this case is more than legal drama—it's a test of whether blockchain technology can continue to prioritize privacy and censorship resistance without criminalizing the engineers who build it.
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