Roman Storm Convicted on One Count in Tornado Cash Money Laundering Trial Amid Regulatory Uncertainty
Roman Storm, co-founder of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, was convicted in July 2025 on a charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, following his 2023 arrest on multiple counts including conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. The maximum combined sentence he faces is 45 years.
Tornado Cash has been accused of laundering over $1 billion in illicit funds, including money linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group. Storm's trial in Manhattan resulted in a guilty verdict on the unlicensed money transmitting conspiracy charge, while jurors were hung on the other two charges; the prospect of a retrial on those hung counts remains uncertain. His Dutch co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was convicted in 2024 of money laundering in the Netherlands and sentenced to 64 months, though his appeal is ongoing. Another developer, Roman Semenov, is charged in the U.S. and remains at large.
Prosecutors maintained that Storm was aware criminals used Tornado Cash to launder money and profited from it. However, the defense argued that Tornado Cash was a legitimate privacy-preserving tool that was openly developed, likening it to a hammer that can be used for good or bad purposes.
The case illustrates ongoing regulatory challenges and uncertainties in the cryptocurrency sector. Notably, the Blanche memo issued in April and a Department of Justice speech in August clarified that writing code is not a crime but that certain legal theories might still support charges. Several decentralized finance (DeFi) groups, including the DeFi Education Fund and the Solana Policy Institute, submitted amicus briefs opposing the prosecution, warning of chilling effects on innovation in DeFi.
A hearing scheduled for January 22, 2025 in the Southern District of New York will address the defense's motion to acquit and consider whether the government plans to retry the unresolved charges. Meanwhile, legislative efforts are underway in Congress to establish clearer and permanent cryptocurrency regulations, including a market-structure bill, with debates expected to continue into the new year.
