Tornado Cash Developer Released Under Electronic Monitoring

Alexey Pertsev, the developer of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, has been released from custody under electronic monitoring on February 7, 2025. Pertsev had been in pre-trial detention since 2022 following charges related to the cryptocurrency mixing service.

The Dutch court's decision comes after Pertsev was sentenced to five years and four months in prison in May 2024. The court had found him guilty of involvement in laundering $1.2 billion through cryptocurrencies, basing their decision on his role in developing Tornado Cash and not preventing malicious actors from using the service.

Pertsev announced his release on social media platform X, stating that while this is not complete freedom, it represents an improvement over imprisonment. The electronic monitoring will allow him to better work on his appeal as he continues to fight for justice in his case.

The developer's main defense argument centers on the position that user privacy should not be considered intentional money laundering, and that software code cannot be considered property. His case has attracted significant attention within the cryptocurrency community, leading to the creation of JusticeDAO, a fund established for the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers.

The case began after the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisted Tornado Cash in August 2022. According to the Treasury Department, the mixing service was used to launder more than $7 billion in digital assets, including $455 million stolen by North Korean hacker group Lazarus.

The cryptocurrency community has shown strong support for Pertsev's case, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin contributing 50 ETH (worth $170,000) to the JusticeDAO legal defense fund.