Roman Storm Convicted Amid $1B Tornado Cash Allegations

- Roman Storm, Tornado Cash co-founder, convicted on one charge of unlicensed money transmission. - Jury deadlocked on more severe charges of money laundering and sanctions violations. On August 6, 2025, Reuters reported that a Manhattan jury convicted Roman Storm, co-creator of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. The jury found him guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business; however, it could not reach a unanimous decision on the more severe charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. The verdict follows heightened scrutiny of Tornado Cash. Prosecutors claim the platform facilitated over $1 billion in illicit transactions, alleging this figure includes funds laundered by the Lazarus Group, a hacking entity linked to North Korea. In his defense, Storm's legal team argued he only developed open-source software and bore no responsibility for its use by third parties. The jury’s decision sparked widespread concern within the crypto community and among advocacy groups, as many view the conviction as a dangerous precedent for decentralized finance and software developers. On August 6, the DeFi Education Fund criticized the outcome in a statement, saying, “We are disappointed that the jury did not recognize that Storm should not be responsible for the actions of third parties he could not control.” In addition, Coin Center and the Blockchain Association voiced support for Storm. Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coin Center’s executive director, called the charge “inappropriate” and pledged to back an appeal. Roman Storm remains free on bond after a court determined he is not a flight risk, and he reportedly plans to appeal the conviction. The charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business carries a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison. According to CoinMarketCap, as of 12:00 UTC on August 6, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $1,878, and its 24-hour trading volume was down 1.5%.