The Ethereum Foundation and Keyring Network have started a campaign to collect money for Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev as they face legal issues.
Ethereum Foundation and Keyring Network Gather Money
On October 10, the two groups announced they are starting to raise money to support open-source legal defense funding.
The announcement says that the money made from zkVerified permissioned vaults on the Ethereum network in the first three months will be used for Storm and Pertsev’s legal defense.
Alex McFarlane, the CEO of Keyring Network, said, “We think everyone has the right to privacy, and open-source developers shouldn’t be punished for writing code. ”
“By giving our early protocol fees to help Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, we are showing that zkVerified DeFi can follow the rules, keep things safe, and protect privacy while supporting the people who helped create it,” he said.
After the news, Pertsev went on X to say he is very thankful for the donations.
“We still have a lot to do in this appeal because the Court has said we need to do more investigation,” the developer said. “We are working for fairness, and your support is very important to #CodeWithoutFear. ”
Tornado Cash Case Sparks Discussion
Storm was accused of planning to hide illegal money, actually hiding illegal money, and breaking rules about financial restrictions in August 2023. In August 2025, they were found guilty of one of the charges.
Federal prosecutors say that Storm hid and moved over $1 billion using Tornado Cash. This included hundreds of millions of dollars for the Lazarus Group, a group linked to North Korea that creates malware.
“Roman Storm and Roman Semenov are said to have run Tornado Cash and helped with money laundering on purpose,” the former U. S official stated Lawyer Damian Williams said in a press release in August 2023.
As Storm and Pertsev keep fighting their legal issues, the results could affect how much developers can create privacy tools without getting into trouble with the law.
