SPI Backs Tornado Cash Devs with $500K Legal Fund, Says ‘Writing Code Is Not a Crime’
The Solana Coverage Institute (SPI) has announced a $500,000 donation to the authorized protection funds of Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, the builders behind the sanctioned Twister Money crypto mixer.
The donation comes as Storm was convicted in August 2025 on conspiracy costs for working an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise, whereas Pertsev obtained a 64-month prison sentence in the Netherlands for cash laundering.
SPI CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine characterised the prosecutions as setting a “chilling precedent that threatens the software program improvement business,” arguing that neither developer took custody of person belongings nor maintained management over the protocol after it was deployed.
Ethereum Basis Leads Business Assist for Privateness Developer Protection
The Ethereum Foundation previously pledged $500,000 to Storm’s authorized protection fund, which has raised over $4.7 million towards an bold $7 million goal.
Basis co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang said that “privateness is regular, and writing code just isn’t against the law” whereas calling upon the broader crypto neighborhood to contribute further assist.
Storm faces as much as 5 years in jail on the money-transmitting conviction, with probably a long time extra if prosecutors retry him on deadlocked costs of cash laundering conspiracy and sanctions violations.
The U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned Twister Money in August 2022, alleging that $7 billion had been laundered via the platform since 2019, together with frequent use by North Korea’s Lazarus Group hackers.
Federal prosecutors characterised Storm as somebody who profited from “hiding soiled cash for criminals,” whereas protection groups argued the protocol was designed as a privateness instrument for respectable customers.
Amongst many others, crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky criticized Storm’s conviction as “a tragic day for DeFi,” arguing that Part 1960 shouldn’t apply to builders of non-custodial protocols who lack management over person funds.
The Free Pertsev & Storm group and authorized consultants fear that the precedent might criminalize open-source improvement extra broadly throughout the crypto ecosystem.
Cross-Border Proof Challenges Complicate Crypto Prosecutions
Most just lately, Storm’s protection revealed main issues with the federal government’s proof assortment from Dutch authorities following Pertsev’s arrest within the Netherlands.
The FBI’s extraction of what prosecutors claimed was Pertsev’s phone was lacking creator data for forwarded messages and confirmed incomplete file retrieval.
The misattributed Telegram message carried actual penalties when Assistant U.S. Legal professional Ben Arad referenced it throughout pretrial hearings, telling the decide it demonstrated the co-founders’ consciousness of wrongdoing.
In Storm’s favor, protection attorneys characterised this as offering “false data” to each the courtroom and probably the grand jury that issued the indictment.
Because it stands now, Twister Money customers, builders, and crypto executives proceed difficult Treasury sanctions in courtroom, arguing that immutable sensible contracts shouldn’t be topic to OFAC restrictions.
Technical Evaluation Factors to SOL Restoration Amid Newest Donation
Solana’s worth motion has shaped one other golden cross sample on the SOL/BTC ratio at 0.0018841, the place the 50-day transferring common has crossed above the 200-day common.
Historic precedent exhibits that earlier golden crosses have led to explosive rallies of 19x and 340%, though diminishing returns counsel extra modest positive factors as market capitalization grows.
The SOL/USD pair at present trades round $213.53 inside a long-term horizontal vary between $120 and $240, approaching key resistance on the “heaven’s door” degree of round $235.
A number of exams of this resistance counsel a heavy provide should be overcome for a continuation towards new all-time highs above the earlier $260 peak.
Quick-term worth motion exhibits SOL testing a key ascending trendline that has offered assist all through the present advance.
A profitable maintain of the ascending trendline assist, mixed with momentum constructing, might goal the $235 resistance degree. Conversely, failure beneath $210 may set off a deeper correction.
The golden cross sample gives essentially the most compelling bullish argument; nevertheless, traders ought to anticipate preliminary volatility earlier than any sustained advance materializes, probably resulting in new highs above $260.
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