The DeFi Education Fund, a leading crypto policy advocacy group, has urged the Trump administration to intervene in what it calls the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers. Their appeal focuses on the case of Roman Storm, co-founder of the decentralized crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
In a letter dated April 28 and addressed to White House crypto advisor David Sacks, the group called on President Donald Trump to halt what they describe as a Biden-era Department of Justice (DOJ) campaign unfairly targeting software developers.
Roman Storm, indicted in August 2023, faces charges of aiding in laundering over $1 billion through Tornado Cash. His trial is set for July, while his co-founder, Roman Semenov, remains at large, reportedly in Russia.
The DeFi Education Fund argues that holding developers criminally responsible for how others use their open-source code sets a dangerous precedent. They claim this approach contradicts earlier guidance from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) during Trump’s first term, which clarified that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols are not considered money transmitters.
The group warns that such legal actions could freeze innovation and expose open-source developers to politically motivated enforcement. Industry leaders, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko, have supported the petition, which has gathered 232 signatures so far.
The DOJ’s case against Storm alleges his involvement in laundering funds linked to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. Meanwhile, Tornado Cash’s third co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands in August 2022 and remains in pre-trial detention.
The U.S. Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022, citing its role in laundering over $7 billion in virtual currency since 2019. Despite its focus on privacy, the platform has been repeatedly exploited for cybercrime proceeds.
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