Vitalik Buterin Donates IDR 2.75 Billion To Tornado Cash Founder

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. (Photo; Doc. Decrypt)

JAKARTA - As an act of solidarity with fellow blockchain developers, Vitalik Buterin as one of the founders of Ethereum has donated 50 Ether (ETH) equivalent to around $170,000. The fund is intended to support Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash who is currently facing a judicial process in the Netherlands.

Tornado Cash is a crypto mixer service that allows anonymous transactions by blurring traces of digital assets. Although designed to increase privacy, the service is in the spotlight of the authorities for allegedly being used in money laundering activities by bad actors, including hackers from North Korea.

In August 2022, the United States Treasury through the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, accusing the platform of helping launder more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies.

Alexey Pertsev's arrest by Dutch authorities in 2022 marked the start of legal issues for the Tornado Cash team. In May 2024, Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering charges and sentenced to more than five years in prison. Currently, he is filing an appeal against the ruling.

Apart from Pertsev, other developers such as Roman Storm and Roman Semenov are also facing similar charges in the United States, including money laundering, sanctions violations, and fraud. The trial for Storm is scheduled to begin on April 14, 2025.

This donation from Buterin adds to the total funds raised through the "Support Alexey Pertsev" campaign on the Juicebox platform, which has so far raised more than 184 ETH. The funds will be used to cover ever-increasing legal costs during the judicial process.