Tornado Cash Developer Sentenced To Jail, Minimum 90 Days

Tornado Cash developer jailed. (photo: doc. Dapp)

JAKARTA – One of the developers of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer, Alexey Pertsev, was forced to serve a minimum prison sentence of 90 days, even though he has not been convicted of a crime.

For information, Tornado Cash is a decentralized financial platform (DeFi) that prioritizes privacy. This means that the identity of the crypto owner will not be traced by mixing transactions in the network. Therefore, Tornado Cash has the opportunity to be used for financial crimes including money laundering or money laundering.

The arrest of developer Tornado Cash in the Netherlands some time ago has sparked pros and cons among the crypto community. They believe the arrest will not have a serious impact on other crypto platforms that put user privacy first.

On 24 August 2022, a Dutch court ruled to keep Pertsev for a minimum of 90 days. The decision came after the judge rejected a request from Pertsev's lawyer to grant bail to the defendant. Meanwhile, according to a spokesman for the Dutch court, the next public hearing must be held within 90 days.

As CryptoPotato has reported, Tornado Cash founder Alexey Pertsev was arrested by Dutch authorities while he was in Amsterdam. The reason for the arrest was because of suspicion of the developer who allegedly covered up the flow of funds resulting from illicit activities. In addition, Tornado Cash is also suspected of being a place for money laundering.

The arrests sparked a wave of protests among crypto supporters. They are worried that the arrest will be the first step for the authorities to arrest developers of crypto platforms who prioritize privacy and are open-source. The reason is that decentralized financial platform (DeFi) developers cannot control how the platform is used by consumers.

It didn't stop there, Pertsev's supporters even held a petition to collect 2,500 signatures. To date, 2,485 have signed the petition. Around 50 people have gathered at Amsterdam's Dam Square to protest the actions of the Dutch authorities against Alexey Pertsev.