Vitalik Buterin contributes 30 ETH to Juicebox-created legal fund for Tornado Cash developers

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin appears to have donated 30 ETH ($111,000) to a legal defense fund for Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm via the decentralized fundraising platform Juicebox, on-chain data shows.

A transaction from an address associated with Buterin, named vitalik.eth, was made at 1:58 am EST to the “ Free Alexey Roman ” legal fund on Juicebox.  

The fund has so far raised 591 ETH ($2.2 million) to provide legal help to the developers of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, who face money laundering charges. 

This month, Dutch courts sentenced Alexey Pertsev to 64 months in prison for his role in processing $1.2 billion through the crypto mixer from July 2019 to August 2022, concluding he facilitated money laundering.

The U.S.-sanctioned mixer obfuscates transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to hide their on-chain trails.

Roman Storm, another developer involved with Tornado Cash, remains detained in the U.S. since his arrest in 2023, with his trial scheduled for September.

In 2022, Buterin donated 10 ETH (valued at $30,980 at that time) to AssangeDAO — a legal fund on Juicebox to support WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.